Sky Heart
by TheXGrayXLady
Summary: "Feeling disappointed boy?" said a familiar voice from behind him. Raimundo whipped around to find himself face to face with none other than Chase Young. "What are you doing here lizard? If you're here to get me to go over to your side think again."
1. Everybody was

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown, the random pop culture references, or any of the characters that appear in this story. Except for Minerva. She's mine.**

**_I apologize if this isn't very good. It's a first attempt. At least I try right?_**

**_Every Body Was..._**

"No! This cannot be" Omi whimpered upon seeing the once familiar room.

"What the?" Clay said, looking at the ceiling.

"He is so dead" Kimiko hissed.

The brown haired boy on the roof laughed a little as he watched his teammates leave the dorms to come find him. Sure, he was Shoku. Sure, he was supposed to be the responsible one. But did that mean he couldn't have a little fun once in a while? Not if he could help it.

He laid back and examined his handiwork. Omi's room redone with a squirrel décor, Clay's hat glued to the ceiling, Kimiko's PDA reprogrammed to show a video of Jack attempting to break-dance when she tried to turn it on, and the finishing touch, Kung Fu Fighting pumped through the Temple PA system. A little cruel perhaps, but worth it later.

"On the roof" Clay said, pointing at him. _Now the fun really begins_ he thought, flipping over the roof peak.

_I'd give this one a nine for execution, seven for escapeablilty, eight for style, and an eight for planning,_ he thought, wincing as he hit the ground. The time spent running from the other dragons was one of the few occasions where he could truly push himself to the limit. Without the other monks, he just had no motivation, but the morning jogs, they all had to keep pace with each other.

He caught himself rethinking the escapeability score when he turned the corner however. Master Fung stood directly in his way glaring at him with a look that could have dropped a charging elephant at thirty paces. "Raimundo Pedrosa" he said calmly. "Come with me."

As he followed the older monk to his office, he couldn't help but hear Omi say: "Our friend shall truly receive the gift this time."

"You mean he's going to get it" Kimiko corrected. "It's about time too."

He nervously glanced around Master Fung's sparsely decorated office, his previous good mood forgotten as he imagined the lecture that would follow. Master Fung hadn't lectured him about pranks in a long time, but Raimundo assumed that having his predawn meditation interrupted would not make the monk happy.

"Since you were appointed to Shoku Leader last month, I have seen brief glimpses of the great leader that you will become" Master Fung said, sitting at his desk and motioning for Raimundo to do the same. "But then there are times like these when I wonder if Dashi was misguided." He shook his head in a disappointed manner. "And I am not the only one who tires of your antics. Master Vic's hair shall never be the same because of "the werewolf incident," Dojo was notably displeased by having his allergy cream sealed in jello, and Clay has lost three hats in the last fortnight alone."

Rai stared at the desk to avoid meeting the old monk's gaze. He noticed that the saying a day calendar was about a month behind and note cards with reminders like: "tell Dojo not to wash white socks with red shirts" were scattered around the desk.

"I was going to start this phase of your training a month ago, but due to complications, I was forced to delay it" he continued. "But it is in your best interests to start now. You will train with a new mentor for three days out of every week. It is a good thing that you woke the entire temple up before dawn so you can get an early start to your first day."

Raimundo's eyes snapped to Master Fung's face. He hadn't been expecting this. Separated from his friends over a prank. "You can't do this to me" he said, defiance masking his worry.

"This course of action was set long before any of you even came to the temple. The Shoku always trains with them" Master Fung said. "Don't worry. You will see your friends most of the time. Now get up and get your things together, you don't want to keep your new mentor waiting."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Wind Dragon's expression as he left Master Fung's office was enough to dampen even Omi's spirits. "My friend, why are you in the garbage? Master Fung could not have held up a punishment that is too severe."

"In the dumps and handed down Omi" he said, and pushed by the other dragons on his way to his cubicle. Kimiko watched him go sadly. This wasn't like him. One of the few things that she actually enjoyed about his stupid pranks were that they showed that no matter how serious and responsible being Shoku made him, he was still the same reckless, cocky, goofball that she met four years ago.

_Not that I'm going to have to worry about that_, she thought. He still tried to shirk work by covering up dirty dishes with the Shroud of Shadows and skated on soapy sponges to clean the floors. Seeing him shaken up so much worried her.

"I'm going to see what's wrong with Rai" she said. "You guys go and find where he put the off switch for the speakers." Clay gave her a knowing look, and then hurried off after Omi to find the switch.

Rai was sitting on his soccer ball, staring with empty eyes at something grasped in his hands when she came into his room. For a few minutes, she just stood in the door unsure of what to say. "Rai, are you okay?"

"What does it look like?" He replied, not looking at her. He sighed and added: "I'm leaving."

"What?" She braced herself against the doorway. "Over a stupid prank?" How would Clay and Omi take this? She knew that Omi would take this especially hard. Despite the young monk's jealousy over the leader position, he was fiercely loyal to his friends.

"No, for training" he said. "Just three days out of the week, but I'm still gonna miss you guys. I'm actually sort of relieved that it wasn't worse. I thought I was gonna get laundry duty or something."

"Where would the people who actually like their clothes be then?" She laughed. "That shroud would have to get paid overtime." The Brazilian actually cracked a smile, not a cocky grin or a sarcastic smirk, a genuine smile. "Don't worry, we'll still be here after three days, and if we're not, you can blame Clay for letting Dojo at the hot sauce."

"I highly resemble – I mean, resent- that statement" the little dragon said, slithering into the room. "Sorry if I'm interrupting something here kids, but we've got to get going. Your new mentor's not going to like you being late." Rai picked up the backpack by his side and followed Dojo into the courtyard.

Kimiko couldn't help but wonder what sort of something Dojo thought he might have been interrupting. Rai was her best friend. They always went to each other with their problems. Like the other week when Omi kept making sexist remarks. Rai had wasted no time almost putting a stop to that. He had even hidden the kid's "Ancient Guide to Females" when Omi wasn't paying attention.

When she got out to the courtyard, he was already wishing the other monks goodbye. His fake brave smile wasn't fooling her though, he was still as nervous as he had been in the cubicle. She rushed up to him and gave him a quick goodbye hug before he left.

"You're going to miss him aren't you?" Clay asked after a few minutes of watching him and Dojo disappear into the predawn gloom.

"Like I'm going to miss constant teasing and having my privacy invaded by obnoxious pranks" she said. It was only for three days out of the week anyway.

"You've got a point there" he laughed. "I'm going to miss loosing my hats like a prairie dog misses a rattler. But I suppose that we're going to have to take over correcting Omi full time."

"I guess so" she said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I have one thing to say kid" Dojo said. "I do not envy you right now."

"Why?" He muttered sleepily. Spending all night prepping that prank was not one of his better ideas.

"Your mentor has a bit of a thing against the Xiaolin temple right now. In fact, she's had this thing for the past fifteen hundred years" Dojo said. This didn't help Raimundo's feelings of discomfort about the new arrangement.

"What's her deal?" He asked, leaning forwards to hear better over the wind.

"It's a long story. Let's just leave it at she really didn't want Dashi to hide a Shen Gong Wu, and she's held it against us for fifteen hundred years that he did. It took Master Fung and I a month of negotiating to get her to agree to train you" Dojo said. "You'll be fine though. You can't get a better education anywhere."

"Thanks for the confidence gecko" he snorted.

"Seriously, don't sweat it. Her last apprentice is one of the greatest warriors on earth" Dojo said, for once ignoring the gecko remark. Somehow, this worried Rai more than Dojo's half-hearted assurances. "She's just going to be assessing you anyway. Just a quick warning though, she has a flare for the dramatic and a sense of humor that makes your pranks look like the work of a depressed armature playwright."

They flew on for about an hour until they came to a high mountain. On a ledge before a cave, some sort of animal lay on a patch of moss. Dojo began to descend towards this cave. When they finally touched down, he realized that the animal was a griffin. It raised its head somewhat reluctantly off the soft moss, its mottled gray feathers shining in the early sunlight.

"You must be the fresh meat" she said. Her voice was high and tinny, but slow, as if she was unused to speaking English.

"Yeah" he replied as he dismounted. "You're the new boss lady right?"

The animal shook her head. "Nah. You're Comet's girl right?" Dojo asked in an amused tone of voice. The griffin nodded slowly, her jaw clenched slightly. "Give your dad my regards the next time you see him, and tell Min I'm sorry about the Wu. It's hers once we find it." With this, the dragon flew off back towards the temple.

"Follow me" she said, standing up and walking off towards the cave. He followed her through side tunnels and strange doors that opened at a touch of her claw. The griffin never paused to look where she was going. All the while, a strange roaring noise grew as they went deeper into the cavern. Finally, they reached their destination deep within the recesses of the cave.

An opening in the ceiling let in enough sunlight for him to see the river and waterfall that was the source of the roaring noise that had gradually grown throughout his journey through the cave. At the base of the waterfall, there stood a lithe, tall form shrouded in mist. "Go on" the griffin insisted.

He walked down a rarely used, rough-hewn path to the stepping-stones that led to the rock platform where his new mentor stood. "Come no closer Dragon of the Wind" said an ancient sounding, powerful voice. The silhouette on the other side of the stones began to rise on a cloud of mist, blue flames licking up and down her arms. Wind whipped violently around the room and she rose even higher. Then, everything stopped. She hung suspended in the air for a few moments and vanished in a shower of white sparks.

He looked around the cavern, waiting for her to reappear on a ledge, or more likely right behind him, but the woman never did.

"Truly some of my inferior work don't you think?" Said another voice from right him. He whipped around and saw only the griffin watching him with a displeased, yet amused expression on her face. Gone was the shrill voice that she had initially used, in its place was a deeper, smoother sounding voice with just the faintest hint of a British accent.

"That was just an illusion?" He asked.

"What are you kids saying nowadays? Is no shit Sherlock out of date?" She snorted.

**_There you go. First chapter suffered through. Rate and review please :)_**


	2. Mentors and Macbeth

**Disclaimer: What's this? I now own Xiaolin Showdown? No, it's still not my property. **

**_Thank you to my amazing reviewers! Loving the support!_**

_**Mentors and Macbeth**_

"What was that all about?" He asked.

"I like to have fun with my apprentices" she said, leading him out of the waterfall cave, through another series of tunnels to a small, well-lit cave with a desk and a chair.

"Your room" she said.

"What is it with great masters and their aversion to beds?" He muttered, throwing his backpack to the desk. She hadn't even provided the mats that they had back at the temple.

"What was that boy?" She asked, her blue-gray eyes shining with a dangerous light. He looked at her with an innocent expression. "That's what I thought you said. Come along now. I don't have all eternity." She laughed grimly, as if enjoying her own private joke.

He followed her out of the cave and up the mountain. His new mentor picked her way up the cliff face with the agility of a mountain goat. She glared down at him from the top of the cliff, clearly displeased by the speed of his ascent.

"What is that old monk teaching you? You should be up here by now" she said. By the time he actually complied with her order to be at the top, his hands were raw from the sharp rocks. The meadow at the top of path looked to have been hastily cleaned out and converted to an obstacle course. Despite the slipshod appearance, it looked to be more complex than the one back at the temple.

"Fastest human time is ten minutes. You're Dragon of the Wind. I expect seven from you" she said, flopping back down on a patch of sunny grass. "What are you waiting for? Go on, run the course."

He started the course just fine. The sandbags and swinging blades went perfectly, but then he began to have problems on the stepping-stones. They were coated with slimy moss and were spaced almost too far for him to jump. Every time he fell into the water below, the griffin would give him a look that plainly said "Do the obstacle again." The course only went downhill from there. The climbing wall had only one handhold and was otherwise as smooth as glass, the rope bridge flipped whenever he shifted his weight to take a step, and to add insult to injury, a deceptively sturdy stone bridge across a lava pit collapsed from both ends as he ran across. He barely survived that particular element.

When he finally fell over the finish line after taking a tumble over inhumanly high hurdles, his mentor had only a look of unrivaled disgust. "Twenty three. Run it again." She snapped. Rai glared at her, but didn't speak.

He thought that this time went better, but when he got back to the finish his mentor's only words were: "Twenty three, thirteen. Again."

"So I can fail again?" He said. She gave him a look that told him that she expected this response.

"You haven't even come close to passing yet. What do you think?" She said, examining her talons in a bored fashion. "You are going to keep running this course until I am satisfied with your results."

"It's not humanly possible to run this in seven minutes" he said, starting to wring water out of his soaked robes.

"Fine. Then why don't we try something a little slower paced?" She said standing and walking off towards the cliff. He followed her down and back into the cave. This time, they came to a cave filled with books and scrolls. "Master Fung tells me that you are quite fond of studying. Why don't you do that?" She flicked her tail and knocked three books off a mahogany shelf. "Pick those up."

As he did so, she continued, "Now that I think about it, why don't you study from those books. I'll be testing you on them tomorrow. That is, unless you'd rather run the course?"

He considered his options: let her win and run the course or study. Needless to say, studying won out. He shook his head and she led him to a table in the library and left him there.

Rai was tempted to sleep for a while, but he got the feeling that she would know the moment that his head hit the table and would come back with something worse than that course for him to do. When he opened the first book, he was overcome with bad memories from Rio. Algebra, the cause of the suffering he went through the year before he left for the temple.

School had always come easily to him, but he had never been taunted before that year. He had always had the protection of being one of the star members of the soccer team. Hell, he had been popular before then. That was before he was talked into joining the math league and the truth of what his family really did for a living got out. After that, catcalls of "nerd" and "circus freak" flew at him between classes. Only a couple of guys from the soccer team had remained fiends with him after that.

He closed that book and looked at the other two. The covers of "An Idiot's Guide to Ancient History" and "Astronomy for Ignoramuses" stared up at him from the table. In the past three years, he had learned more about ancient history than he would have cared to, so he picked up the book on astronomy. He always did like stargazing.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Come on kids, get changed, and get some Wu. I've got a live one" Dojo said, landing in the middle of the training area and scratching like crazy. The three monks ran off and came back a few minutes later dressed in street clothes, Clay in his cowboy gear, Omi wearing an imperceptibly better quality robe, and Kimiko in an oxford and blazer with dark wash jeans and black converse.

"Raimundo is not coming?" Omi asked as they flew over the temple wall.

"I wish he was, but I just started sensing this one when I got back and Minerva's not going to like having a lesson interrupted" Dojo replied.

"What Wu is it?" Kimiko asked.

"According to the rash on my tail, which by the way is being irritated by those spurs of yours Clay" Dojo said.

"Sorry partner" said Clay, reaching down to remove the offending objects.

"As I was saying, we're looking for the Quill of the Bard. This odd little Wu gives the wielder the power to create incredibly realistic illusions from anything they say or write. And of course, there are a few words of power that have wacky effects" Dojo said. "Dashi and I originally hid it in a lovely little spot by the river Avon in England, but an adventurous lad named Will found it there and brought it to London with him years later. Absolutely no idea what it did. Almost burned down the entire city by saying the M word a few too many times."

"Dojo, might I inquire as to the M word?" Omi asked. "Just to ensure that I do not say it."

"Believe me Omi, where we're going you'll know if you say the M word" Dojo said.

They touched down in a back alley by the Globe Theatre some time later in one of London's famous fog banks. "You kids split up. I've got a feeling this will be a real Wu hunt," Dojo said, curled around Clay's hat like a band of snakeskin.

Kimiko joined up with a tour group. She would blend in with the group of uniformed school kids fairly well and it wouldn't hurt to get a little culture. She worried about Omi though. The last time they had gone on a Shen Gong Wu hunt during the school day, someone had mistaken him for a truant student and they had to rescue him from a police station. She, Clay, and Rai didn't have to worry about that often. For the most part, they could pass for being fresh out of high school.

The perky blond tour guide led the group through the reconstructed theatre pointing at various objects and explaining them in a patronizing tone. The tour might have actually been enjoyable, but she wasn't going to be able to pay attention due to the guide's pretentious attitude. She rolled her eyes and started looking for the Quill.

Something moved to her left. She whipped around to see what it was and was in time to see a shock of red hair disappearing around a corner. Kimiko hoped that that red hair wasn't connected to the singular most annoying human being on the planet. But if it was, Jack might lead her straight to the Quill. _It's a risk I'm going to have to take_, she thought, breaking away from her group to follow the figure.

"Hey Wuya, check this one out" she heard a voice say from an area labeled off limits to tourists. "Thou lily-livered, goatish fiend!"

"Stupid boy. Have you any idea what you're saying?" The witch hissed as Kimiko ducked under the rope barrier. "Around this Shen Gong Wu, you may very well doom us all for saying the wrong word."

She watched the so-called "Prince of Darkness" search through storage boxes for the Wu. There would be no use in revealing herself now, Jack would just send out some of his worthless robots and that would create a scene.

"Don't worry hag breath. I've got it covered," he said. Jack turned to look in another box, but in doing so his jet pack knocked over a box that he had left untouched. It fell to the ground and out tumbled a single black raven's feather.

Jack must have seen it too because just as she dove for it, his hand touched the tip of the feather. "Well, if it isn't the Xiaolin Losers? Kimiko, I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown," he said, grinning evilly.

"Name your game Jack," she said. "Who knows? If I let you pick, maybe your defeat won't be quite so humiliating."

"Doesn't matter. When I'm involved the defeats are always completely humiliating," he said with a proud smile, which turned into a scowl when he finally figured out what he said. "Never mind that. The game is Shakespearian insults. My Mind Reader Conch against your Falcon's Eye. First one out of ideas looses."

She was reluctant to accept his challenge. After all, she had never known Jack to be into anything intellectual aside from his robots. He had to be up to something. Still, she had to accept. "Fine. I accept your challenge."

The storage room shifted until they were standing in the middle of a large stage. Twin pools of light from spotlights formed on either side of the otherwise pitch-black stage. Clay, Omi, Dojo, and Wuya had seats in the balcony of the magically conjured playhouse. Jack stepped into his light dressed in a black and white patched jester suit complete with the belled hat.

"Gong Yi Tan Pi" they called.

"Thou rank half-faced, mumble-news!" Jack yelled, cackling evilly to himself when he was finished.

"That makes no sense," she muttered. Kimiko knew that she had no idea what she was doing, but it would be better to make something up than not try. "Thou vicious mole of nature."

"Thou villainous guts-gripping giglet" Jack laughed.

_What does that even mean?_ She thought, rolling her eyes and continuing the contest. "Thou dull-tongued twit." Omi and Clay shouted encouragement from the balcony as Jack searched for a suitable response.

They continued like this for a while. She had to admit that it was fun, but she was running out of ideas and Jack just seemed to be pulling the words carelessly out of thin air. "Thou venomed hasty-witted rats bane!" She said as a final attempt.

Jack stopped for a moment, her heart jumped at the thought of finally stumping him. He pulled a thin book out of his coat, glanced down at it for a minute, and then replied, "Thou warped tickle-brained harpy." Almost as if the arena knew she was out of insults, it collapsed back into the storage corridor.

"I told you that buying that guide to Shakespearian insults in the gift shop was a good investment," Jack said, sticking his tongue out at Wuya and picking up the Shen Gong Wu. Leave it to Spicer to cheat.

"I don't care if it won us the moon, I told you to be careful about what you say around this Shen Gong Wu," she said glaring at him.

"Hey Jack" Clay called as the evil duo prepared to leave. "You're so smart. Do ya by any chance know the name of the play with the witches?"

"I might, I might not," the albino boy said, turning to face the Xiaolin warriors. "More descriptive beef for brains."

"Ya know? The one from Scotland?" Clay asked, unfazed by Jack's comment. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Asking Jack for random facts after he had humiliated her was almost beyond what she could tolerate. She miraculously kept her cool though.

"You mean Macbeth?" Jack asked. A brilliant flash of light erupted from the Quill and the boy dropped to the floor writhing in agony, his shirt cuffs singed from the surge of electricity that had flowed through him a few seconds prior.

"Stupid boy" Wuya yelled while Clay calmly picked up the scattered Shen Gong Wu. "I told you not to say that word. But did you listen? No. "I've got it covered hag breath." This is the thanks I get for trying to help you."

"Slick move kid" Dojo said as they ducked under the rope partition. "Dashi would approve."

"Yes Clay. Your tricking of Jack Spicer after Kimiko's most humiliating defeat was quite ingenious" Omi said, delighted that they had won the Wu after all. She fought back the need to hit the bald boy. He had been good lately, but sometimes he could still be pigheaded.

"I'm just surprised that you came up with the M bomb," said Dojo. "Most dragons wouldn't think to use that."

"What? Cowboy can't read Shakespeare?" Clay asked, a devious grin forming on his face.

**_Again, rate and review. :) (criticism is welcome)_**


	3. No Catch

**Disclaimer: I owned nothing in the previous chapters, despite my best efforts, I still own nothing.**

**__****Sorry about the short chapter. Got writers block. Either way, enjoy my wonderful readers.**

**__****No Catch**

"I don't see why you waste your time on Shen Gong Wu," said Chase Young. The dark lord eyed the red haired witch lazily as she formulated her response.

"If you had given me my full powers, I would not need to search for them," she said, shrugging and examining her nails. "Besides, if Jack wasn't such an idiot then we would have had the Quill."

"Maybe if you did not trust such matters to Jack Spicer," he said. Wuya glared at him. He knew that Jack could mess up even the simplest of instructions, it wasn't her fault.

"I could have taken them," Jack protested from behind a column. "There were only three of the Xiaolin has-beens this time."

"Three?" Chase asked with sudden interest. He snapped to his feet, abandoning the lotus position that he had been hovering in.

"Yeah, they were one taco short of a family pack" Jack snorted. "I bet green card was too scared of my improved Jackbot 9000's to show his pathetic face." Chase didn't appear to hear the last part though. He had begun to pace back and forth across the main hall.

"Wuya, Raimundo was promoted to Shoku about a month ago right?" He asked, agitatedly running a hand through his hair.

"Here I was thinking that spy system of yours had no flaws," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I don't have time for your sarcasm. Now, I have not kept up on which Shen Gong Wu have revealed themselves. Has the Griffin's Wing activated?" He asked.

"No, but I can't see what you would want with that Shen Gong Wu. With the powers of the Moby Morpher, it's redundant," she said.

"It's not the Shen Gong Wu I'm interested in. It's what certain people will do to get it" he said, his pupils narrowing in an expression that Wuya knew only meant that he was scheming. "How about the Whip of Anubis?"

"If it had, you would be bowing at my feet instead of having this conversation right now," she said. "You surely cannot mean…?"

"No. It would be a waste of time," he said with a dismissive flick of his wrist. "The time of the lion is fast approaching. Come Jack, we have much work to do." The albino followed Chase deeper into the citadel, leaving Wuya only to wonder about his plans.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"That's your challenge? Just land a blow? No catch?" Raimundo asked, eyeing the griffin uneasily in the large training hollow. Over the course of the past two days, if nothing else, he had learned to be wary of any challenge that Minerva had to offer. Mainly due to her obsession with perfection.

She had woken him up the day before after only four hours of sleep and made him run the obstacle course for two hours until he got his time down to twenty minutes. After that, he had taken a test on the books that he read and had to retake it until he got a perfect score. They had spent the rest of the day in magic training, which had failed spectacularly. Minerva had sent him off to bed with words in an ancient tongue that he knew were not terms of endearment.

This morning wasn't much better. They spent more time with the obstacle course of doom, but –much to her displeasure- his time had not gone down. Then he spent about an hour learning how to cook. This wasn't exactly torture though as Minerva was a terrible cook. He suspected that thousands of years of raw meat had something to do with that.

"No catch. Land a blow and you're done for the week," she said. For once, her blue-gray eyes held no hints of deception.

"Okay" he said, still wary of the animal across the hollow. Rai paced back and forth in front of her trying to come up with a strategy. He could use her size against her. Although she would probably be expecting that. Maybe just an all out frontal strike would work best.

"Stop stalling boy" she said. That was when he snapped. Almost three days of being belittled and tormented prompted him to attack. Just when he thought he was going to have a sure chance of punching the smug expression off her face, she disappeared. Every time he got close enough to actually hit her, she moved out of the way.

"Bad idea boy," she said. "You lack the sheer offensive power of a Fire Dragon for an unrestrained strike to be effective." His fist barely missed her face, but not through his own effort. He knew that she was toying with him.

"I'm just getting warmed up" he snarled before making another pass. Again, she moved out of the way with blinding speed. He knew that he would have to try a different approach.

"Shoku Storm Wind" he shouted. Two tornados formed in the center of the hollow. For a moment, Minerva looked almost impressed. Then she flew up to a rock ledge, safe from the wind's fury.

"Magic?" She asked. "Really boy, I've seen what you do with magic. Not your brightest idea." He almost cried out in joy. It was not his goal to use the twisters an offensive manner as she apparently thought, but rather to stir up the dust that he had noticed upon entering the hollow. Within moments, hundreds of years of dust had formed into a perfect smoke screen.

He quietly summoned another small tornado as not to disturb the dust storm too much and rode it up to the ledge. Just as he was about to sweep kick her hind legs, she whipped around and knocked him off balance with her wings.

"Completely and utterly predictable," she said as he teetered on the edge. "You'll have to do much better than that."

_Where is Dojo?_ _I can't keep this up for long,_ he thought. _Maybe if I let her come to me instead, I'll stand a better chance._ Raimundo let himself fall from the ledge onto a cushion of air about a foot off the ground. There was still some dust floating around in the air, so he could use that to hide for a little while.

"Tired of offence?" She asked, jumping down after him. "Fine by me."

"Nah. I'm just getting bored with your lousy comebacks," he said, using the wind to further excite the dust. He backed up against a wall to give himself cover. For what seemed like forever, he saw nothing come at him.

Then from his left he saw a shadow in the dust cloud. It was all he could do to avoid the lightning fast strike. She lunged again, and he tried to dodge, but she moved with him and hit his chest with a series of quick strikes from her beak before jumping back to avoid a counterattack.

They kept this up for a while longer. Then Rai remembered something that Master Monk Guan told him the last time he visited: "Let your body react instinctively. Sometimes, a warrior's mind is his own worst enemy." He figured that since every time he planned an attack she turned it against him, this might be one of those times.

He let his body take over dodging and blocking her attacks and for a moment, it seemed to work. Then he found himself unable to defend against the flurry of strikes that came from every direction.

"Never let your body override your mind," Minerva shrieked, with every word she struck his body with her beak or the back of her talons before jumping back to avoid a counterattack. "Against any halfway decent opponent, you would be destroyed."

He jumped away from her to the center of the hollow. There was something familiar about her fighting style. Quick strikes, minimal energy wasted on blocking. He had seen this before, but couldn't remember where. When she came back at him, he decided to go back on the offensive.

She kept dodging everything he did, but at least he wasn't being attacked anymore. He put up a shield of wind as a further protection method. He looked at the opening in the ceiling; the sky was tinged with an orange light signifying that it was almost sunset. He let out a sigh of relief. Dojo would be here soon and this so-called "training" would be over.

"I think we'll end with this for the week," she said from the other side of the hollow. "But we're not moving on to anything more complicated in any subject until you can land a blow. Now go and fetch your things." He was fine with that. Life would be much easier if he kept Minerva's expectations low.

Rai made his way back to the Spartan accommodations that he had been given. The past three days had not been kind to him. Little sleep, bad food, extremely difficult -if not impossible- work, and all of it endured with her overly harsh criticism and scornful remarks. He wanted to get back to the temple and sleep, maybe that would reduce the humiliation that he felt. He had learned nothing and failed at everything that he had tried.

He left the little room, carefully folding the ragged blanket that she had provided, and came back to the entrance where Dojo and Minerva were making small talk.

"Ready to go kid?" Dojo asked, shifting to his larger form. Rai nodded and jumped onto the dragon's back. "Been nice seeing you." With that, they took off and began flying back to the temple.

"Sorry you had to go through that," Dojo said a little while later. "I guess the second week will be easier."

"Nah, it was fine," he lied, yawning. "If it makes me a better leader, it's worth it."

"If you say so. I bet you're looking forwards to real food though," the dragon laughed. "I had Omi go and pick up pizza before I left. How's that sound?" Dojo got no response however. The boy had fallen asleep on his back.

_**Thank you for reading. Reviews are what make my world go around and give me motivation to continue with my writing. Please do so. PS. Anonomous reviewing has now been enabled :) sorry for waiting so long on that. **_


	4. Of Thieves and Treachery

**Hey. Sorry about the long wait. Been busy with stuff (AKA feeling wicked lazy.) Also, for most of this chapter I felt like I was writing a Scooby Doo episode so...random reference that sort of doesn't belong. Thanks again for the reviews. All of your questions will be answered in good time (insert evil jack laugh here.)**

**_Notice:_ the first half of my chapter five felt like it belonged with this chapter. I have updated accordingly.  
**

**Disclaimer: I own Xiaolin Showdown and anything I reference the day Dr. House gets a puppy. **

**_Of Thieves and Treachery_**

"Come on Kimiko. I want to get back before Raimundo so he can show me some assassin moves," said Omi, running down the street with a stack of pizza boxes balanced on his head.

"You mean killer moves, and I think it might be a better idea to let Rai relax for a while before you start asking him to teach you moves," she said keeping pace with the yellow boy.

"Why is that?" Omi asked.

"You remember how tired we all were after stepping up our training at any point?" She asked, remembering an especially tiring day soon after they were promoted to Wudai Warriors. Omi motioned with his hands to say he understood so as not to upset the pizza boxes. "Were you in the mood to teach moves to anyone at that point?" She didn't add that Dojo had talked about Raimundo's mentor like he was terrified of her.

"You are correct. I am just so eager to learn so I too can one day rise to the rank of Shoku and training will not be as difficult," Omi said with a resigned tone. "Not that it would be difficult for me anyway."

"Exactly. Don't worry, we will make him teach us what he's learning eventually," she laughed.

They darted down the stone path to the temple where Dojo was already waiting for them at the gate. "Hey Dojo, how's Rai?" She asked.

"Actually better than I expected. I'm pretty sure he's not going to want that pizza though" he replied. "He went straight to the showers and then to bed."

"How is that better than expected?" Omi asked, sliding the boxes off his head and into his hands. Kimiko had to admit, she was thinking the same thing. Even Master Monk Guan had never driven them that hard.

"The last time one of her apprentices came back from a solo session for the first time they bypassed bathing entirely and fell asleep by the pond" Dojo said, eyeing the boxes hungrily. "No sense in wasting perfectly good food though."

"Quite correct Dojo," Omi said, following him into the dining area where Clay was waiting.

She sat down next to the cowboy and grabbed a slice of white garlic pizza. "How'd he look when he got back?" She whispered. She figured that Clay would be more inclined to be less protectively dishonest than Dojo.

"Real tired, like a three-legged mule after running the Belmont" Clay replied. "He didn't laugh when I tried to tell him how we had to shut off those darn speakers." She winced, thinking about crawling under the porch of the main building for over an hour trying to find the off switch.

"That bad?" She asked. She thought she saw something move behind her, but when she turned around there was nothing there.

"Yeah. I have a feeling he'll be fine by morning though. Don't worry," he said before getting into an argument with Omi over the location of the rock garden.

She sat back and enjoyed the cool night air for a little while the boys and Dojo gorged themselves. Her eyes stopped on the tree outside the entryway. A tall form jumped down from the branches and disappeared deeper into the temple. She jumped out of her chair and ran out of the room to follow them. Clay and Omi followed her example with exclamations of surprise.

She lost track of the form near the meditation garden. The reeds by the pond were pressed down, as if someone had run through them. She walked over to them and conjured up a small flame at the end of her finger.

"What in the name of the lone star state is going on?" Clay asked, peering over her shoulder.

"I saw someone running into the temple," she said, examining the reeds. "They came this way."

"Are ya sure ya saw anything?" He said. "I'm not seein' anything."

She didn't respond however. In the mud at the edge of the pond, there were a series of clawed footprints leading towards the temple wall. "Omi, check the vault. Clay go and get Master Fung now," she said. They both nodded and ran off on their assignments.

Kimiko continued to examine the area, but to her dismay, she found no further evidence leading to the identity of the intruder. She thought that she had a pretty good idea, but it was proven wrong when Omi came back bringing the report of the vault.

"We are missing the Star Hanabi, the Ruby of Rameses, the Lotus Twister, and the Black Beatle," he said. "It is most strange that the vault was not forced open and the wall is not broken." This news only served to confuse her, as no one outside the temple knew the sequence of wind chimes that would open the vault.

"Why would someone take those Shen Gong Wu?" She asked. "There are much better Wu to take if you were going to conquer the world."

"I am sure the answers that you seek will be revealed in time," Master Fung said from behind her. "In the meantime, why don't the three of you look in the scrolls for any creature that could have made those tracks? Or why don't you look around the vault for more clues?"

"Master Fung, why aren't ya worried about the missing Shen Gong Wu?" Clay asked, following the old monk towards the vault.

"Once a tree has fallen, you cannot restore it to its original glory," Master Fung replied. "Besides, there are far more dangerous Shen Gong Wu that could have been taken tonight. We should consider ourselves lucky that something like the Ying-Yang Yo-Yo was not taken."

"You are most correct Master Fung, but they must have been taken for a reason," Omi said. "And if I know the Heylin side, they are going to be put to very sinister use."

"Or it could have been Jack being stupid" she said rolling her eyes. "He does have the Serpent's Tail."

"Jack doesn't leave tracks like that," Clay said. "He's not that picky either. Those Wu aren't even sort of close together in the vault."

They continued to argue until they came to the vault. Omi pointed out the things that he had noticed when he came here earlier. Like how other than four drawers left open, there was nothing to indicate that the vault had been broken into. Also, he brought their attention to two other curious sets of footprints in the dirt heading into vault. One of them human, the other definitely feline, but only the feline prints left the building.

Suddenly, her hypothesis from earlier was looking more and more likely. _But how would Chase have gotten into the vault? I'm sure the pass codes have changed in fifteen hundred years, _she thought. _And another thing, why would he leave tracks coming in, but erase them coming out. And why leave his cat's trail visible? The guy in the tree was way too short to be Chase anyway._

"What do you make of this Dojo?" Master Fung asked the dragon slithering out of his sleeve, interrupting her thoughts.

"I'd say that because of the incredibly brave actions of these meddling kids and their dragon that the Wu are going to be rescued, but this has really got me stumped" Dojo said, rubbing his chin. "You have no idea where the cat tracks end?"

Omi shook his head before saying that he would go and find out. The bald monk walked off with a flashlight that Clay gave him to find where the tracks ended.

"Clay, Kimiko, the two of you will go to the scroll library to look for any possible explanations for these strange events" Master Fung said. "Dojo will be along shortly to help you find anything."

While they walked over to the library, Kimiko bounced her theory about the intruder's identity off Clay. He admitted to having similar ideas, but couldn't figure out how anyone could have gotten in without help.

"It all fits because there are two sets of tracks going in, but only one coming out, and only members of the temple know the combination" he said. An uncomfortable silence settled between the two of them as the potential meaning of his words sunk in. "But that doesn't mean that someone from our corral has to be a no good varmint." He added hastily.

"Whoever broke in probably got lucky" she said, attempting to reassure both herself and Clay that there were no traitors in their midst again.

The two of them settled awkwardly at opposite ends of the library's only table with an armful of scrolls on wildlife -both magical and otherwise- and combinations of Shen Gong Wu. They spent about twenty minutes reading before Omi and Dojo came in. Omi told them about how the tracks ended at the tree by the dining hall and the clawed footprints that they had originally found started on the other side of the tree.

She blankly nodded her understanding and handed Omi a scroll. Upon sensing the tension in the room, the little monk tried to cheer up his friends. He soon found that even his story about the giant squirrel that he had faced in the woods two weeks ago could not lift their spirits.

Kimiko tried to keep her mind off the issue and concentrate on the scroll, but the nagging thought kept coming back. It was obviously an inside job, and there was only one monk that had no alibi for the break in. One monk who had proven that he could turn Heylin.

_No_, she thought. _That was two years ago, he wouldn't do that. He couldn't do that. _She couldn't totally banish the thought from her mind until Master Fung came in hours later telling them to go to bed and return to the problem at hand the next day.

That night no one in the temple slept well with the thought of another raid hanging over their heads. She could hear Clay roping various objects in his room and Omi planning out the proper way to defeat a legion of armed ninjas. She tossed and turned for about half an hour before deciding to web surf. There was a set of evil chatrooms that she had been meaning to check out and her favorite designer released their fall catalogue online a few days ago.

The catalogue disappointed her. Loads of beautiful clothing, but nothing that made sense for fighting evil in. _Although I'm sure that Alistair Paro's first thought when designing blouses is a person's ability to kick robot butt in it,_ she thought, rolling her eyes and starting on the "League of Wicked Malicious, Seriously Evil, and Totally Not Living in Their Mother's Basement Super Villains" main chatroom. She groaned when she realized that it was mostly just a bunch of wannabe world conquerors trading evil laugh advice and "yo mamma" insults. She was about to exit the page when she noticed an odd post under "Miscellaneous Villainy."

Apparently, over the last three days there had been a string of robberies around the world. In every one, the thief had passed up a fortune in gold and other jewels, taking only rubies. Also, in each case there was no point of entrance or exit that the police could identify. Almost identical to the break in at the temple. She would have to show this to Master Fung and the others in the morning.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

"Sink and shimmer my friend," said an overly cheerful voice that at seven in the morning could only belong to Omi. Raimundo's sore body told him to do otherwise and he only pulled the blanket further over his head. He couldn't believe that Master Fung wasn't giving him some down time after those three days in hell. Just an extra hour of sleep would do.

Omi waited for a few minutes outside his room before resorting to using the Orb of Tornami. Rai muttered something that he heard Minerva say after a failing obstacle course run before dragging himself out of bed and pulling on his robes. By the time he got to the dining area, he realized that he wasn't so much tired mentally, he figured that he got about twelve hours of sleep, as physically.

The others were another story however. Clay and Kimiko sat at the table, sipping what smelled like extremely strong coffee, while Omi practically flew around the room, the dark circles under their eyes and half-asleep expressions starkly contrasting Omi's boundless energy. The source of which stood half finished in a mug next to Clay.

"You guys let him have coffee?" He asked incredulously, sitting down next to Kimiko. Did he imagine it or did she shrink away from him?

"Dojo's secret stash" she said. He shuddered a little bit. The coffee in Dojo's stash had a label that said_ "Warning, high caffeine content may cause mild hallucinations."_ "Don't look at me that way. After last night we all were basically dead where we stood." He couldn't remember Master Fung giving any assignments that left the team in such a state that would warrant giving Omi coffee.

"What happened last night?" He asked. Kimiko and Clay proceeded to fill him in about the theft. His jade eyes grew wide when he heard about the temple break in and Kimiko's discovery of similar robberies around the world.

"You guys should have gotten me," he said.

"We would've, but ya looked deader than half a possum on Uncle Billy Bob's front bumper," Clay said. "Besides, Kimiko had it under control."

"Kimiko's not your leader, I am. And I need to feel like I can trust you guys to tell me when there's something wrong" he said and instantly hated himself for it. They were only looking out for him and here he was biting their heads off.

"What was it ya said last night? "Unless it's at least two thousand years of darkness, don't bother coming to me"" Clay said, calmly pouring more coffee.

"You weren't exactly all there and we needed people who could think clearly," Kimiko said, staring at her own mug as if it was to blame for the tension within the group.

He didn't respond to that, instead he got up from the table and went into the kitchen to see how breakfast was coming along. Dojo flitted around the room while various pans simmered on the stove.

"Loving the apron mom," he said, gesturing to the pink lace that Dojo was wearing.

'I'll have you know that this is a powerful artifact from a dangerous place known as the clearance bin at Home Goods," the little dragon said as he flipped an omelet.

"The horrors you must have faced to get it," he said, shaking his head in mock reverence.

"According to Master Shu, he had to face off in an epic battle of good and evil with a cheerleading coach for this apron" Dojo replied. "So what's eating you kid?"

"Nothing," he responded.

"You're in here with me instead of seeing just how badly Omi reacts to caffeine. Something's definitely up," the dragon said, sliding buttered toast onto a plate.

"It's nothing. I just think that you guys should have gotten me when you found out about the break in," he said.

"You sure it's that and not that you're feeling left out?" Dojo asked, taking plates and slithering out of the kitchen.

"I'm pretty sure I know what I'm thinking" he responded, following Dojo's example and taking plates.

Dojo made a noise not unlike a badly played bassoon before placing the food on a side table. The other three monks staggered and bounced over a few moments later.

"I still can't believe you let him have coffee," he said with a lopsided grin.

"I'm just surprised that he reacted like this. Omi's had tea his entire life" Kimiko replied, rolling her eyes and taking some toast.

"Master Fung would only permit me to have decaffeinated tea," Omi bubbled, heading back over to the table with his food. "But this is a most wonderful change."

Almost as soon as he sat down, Omi assaulted him with questions about his time training with Minerva. "What did you learn? Can you teach me? How does it feel to be in possession of such power? What was your mentor like?" The bald monk asked, his voice much faster than it Raimundo remembered it.

"Nothing. I can't teach nothing. Sore," he responded, much more interested in his omelet than in the younger boy's questions. He was so hungry that even Dojo's cooking tasted good. He wasn't entirely sure about how to answer Omi's last question. He didn't want to freak the kid out, but at the same time he doubted that he could convincingly hide his dislike for the griffin.

"My mentor's interesting," he said carefully, it wasn't entirely a lie. "Even though I was only there for three days and it was only assessment, she pushed me to be perfect."

"Your mentor's a girl?" Omi asked, his eyes widening in shock. He could see Kimiko's hand tighten visibly around her fork, but she didn't say anything.

"Yeah and she's one of the best fighters I've ever faced. She's blindingly fast and far cleverer than Jack or Bean Breath," he said. "But I have to say, that mangy old griffin's a god awful cook."

Omi continued to pester him with questions, but his answers stayed similarly vague. Between answering Omi's questions, he asked some of his own about the Shen Gong Wu theft. He reminded himself to check out the footprints later as he had his own suspicions about the identity of the intruder.

Aside from the interrogations, breakfast was a relatively subdued affair. As was training that morning. Master Fung apparently decided to take mercy on his worn out pupils.

By the time the noon break rolled around, he was beginning to become bored with the same routines that they had done for the past year. The rest of the group called to him to hang out from under the cherry tree, but he was more interested in looking at the footprints by the vault.

The first set was definitely human like they said, but those weren't the prints he was looking at. He stared at the other set, trying to remember the size of Minerva's hind paws. From the way the tracks were placed, he guessed that the intruder with the paws had stepped on their own tracks, which would have been unnecessary had the intruder had front paws instead of talons. The dinner plate sized tracks would have easily covered anything left from her front feet, and he figured that the stride length was about right, but he didn't feel like he had enough to go on before going to Master Fung with his theory.

Besides, just because he disliked the way she was going about training him didn't mean that she was on the Heylin side. Dojo said that she trained one of the greatest warriors on earth. That had to count for something.

_**As always, that blue review button is your friend. Reviews would be lovely right now. I'm aware that this is by no means my best work. I would appreciate the criticism.**_


	5. It's not enough

**Hey guys. I'm back after journeying through deep and dark worlds (AKA AP summer work and preseason) to bring you chapter five. Thank you to my loyal reviewers and readers. Cookies for all of you. Ditto for anyone who got the Glee reference in the last chapter. **

_**Disclaimer: Qu'est que c'est? I own nothing? Well I am greatly outraged. **_

_**It's not enough  
**_

"You know, there is a difference between immortal and invulnerable," Wuya said through clenched teeth as she tied off the last of the bandages.

"I didn't ask for your opinion," Chase responded, wincing. She knew that the healing magic he learned on the Xiaolin side would have him back to normal in a few hours, but until then the burnt flesh on his arms would cause him pain whenever he moved, but the aloe and bandages helped until then.

"It's not an opinion, it's a fact," she said rolling her eyes. "There are easier ways to test if your training is working." His training currently consisted of meditating for hours on end, before plunging his arms up to his elbows in one of the citadel's rivers of lava every day for the last three weeks.

"If? Wuya, my training is definitely working," he snarled, standing up and walking, still slightly unsteady, towards the door. She sighed, wordlessly conceding that much to the warlock. "And this is the only way to know for sure."

She remembered the first time he did this. Chase had collapsed because of the pain he was in and no one knew where he was until Jack came to the lair ranting and raving about something, she was too interested in a back up plan to rule the world if this one fell through to really listen. Despite the cats' insistence that their Master was not to be disturbed while he was meditating, he pushed past them to bring his grievance to Chase. It was only his shriek of terror that alerted both the cats and her to the circumstances surrounding his meditation. His injuries were never that bad again.

"I know that," she said. "I'm just getting tired of having to do this every day."

"By the way, I'm going out in a few hours, if Jack comes by tell him that I'm busy and will see him tomorrow" he said, steadying himself with the doorframe.

"Busy with what? Playing emo in the meditation chamber?" She said, examining her nails.

Chase made a noise that could have been either a cough or a laugh before responding, "No. I may have waited too long in making this strike. It cannot be delayed any longer for Jack Spicer and his idiocy."

He waited at the doorframe a few moments longer as if unsure about something. Wuya would never be sure about what happened next, but she thought she heard him say the words "thank you."

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

_What it would feel like,_ he wondered looking down at the clouds,_ to just float away? Go wherever the wind takes you without a care in the world. _This wasn't the first time he imagined what it would be like to be one of them. But if the past three weeks were anything to go by, he figured that it might well be one of the last times.

He was going back to Minerva's cave for training for the fourth time tomorrow. The only real differences he could see between the last three weeks were that she was getting progressively more and more short-tempered and sharp tongued and less inclined to allow anything less than perfection. To make things worse, he still wasn't learning any skills that went beyond the ever changing books she gave him to read because she refused to move on from basics in any subject until he hit her.

Thinking about going back for another three days of failure and verbal abuse was what made him go to a grassy field high on the mountain to think. _Maybe I'm not cut out to be leader. If I was, then I could handle this,_ he thought, throwing a rock over the ledge.

"Feeling disappointed boy?" said a familiar voice from behind him. Raimundo whipped around to find himself face to face with none other than Chase Young.

"What are you doing here lizard? If you're here to get me to go over to your side think again," he said, taking a fighting stance. To his surprise, Chase just stood there, hands behind his back and a bored expression on his face.

"No. Nothing of the sort," he said. "I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd check in on Minerva's new chew toy.." He stared at Chase, as if that would help him understand the Heylin master's motives.

"How did you know that she was my mentor?" Rai said, moving away from the ledge.

Chase mirrored his movements and suddenly threw a punch at Raimundo. The smaller boy dodged and used his wind powers to move fifty feet back from Chase. "If you weren't, your instinctive response would have been to block and counterattack my admittedly poorly thrown punch," he said, shrugging. "Actually it was in her contract with Dashi for her to train any new dragons once they reached the level of Shoku. I'm moderately surprised she honored it."

"What do you mean?" He asked, moving into a defensive stance in case Chase decided to attack again.

"You mean they didn't tell you?" Chase laughed, waking towards him.

"Tell me what?" He said, quirking his eyebrow and lowering his defensive position.

"She was once just like you or your friends" Chase started, circling Raimundo, his hands still clasped behind his back. "Dashi was about ten or eleven when the two older monks he trained with sent him on a mission to a northern province where a tea merchant was reporting an evil spirit taking his merchandise. Despite his age, when he got there he realized that he wasn't looking at the work of spirits. He tracked the tea thief to a cave on a mountain where he found a bad-tempered griffin with a stolen teapot boiling on a magically lit fire. Dashi, recognizing her magic potential and being a charismatic young lad convinced her to come back to the monks to train."

"Yeah so? I figured that she trained with Dashi from what Dojo and Master Fung have told me," he said, cutting the dark haired man off.

"Impatience, she's rubbing off on you," he chuckled. "It didn't take long for the two of them to figure out that they had found the fourth dragon. They were just surprised she never suspected her dormant powers for so long. Five years later, Terra died and Lumis didn't want to continue the life of a Dragon without his beloved wife so he gave up his element and moved back to the city. By then, Dashi had completed his training and brought in Guan and I to replace his former teammates. I think I was twelve at the time."

Raimundo decided to circle along with Chase to prevent him from attacking from behind. When he noticed what he was doing, Chase lunged at him again and this time, he didn't hold back. It was all he could do to block and dodge and whenever he attacked, the older man would dodge and only very rarely would he block. Suddenly, he realized why Minerva's fighting style was so familiar to him.

"You were her apprentice" he exclaimed between strikes.

"I still remember the fear that coursed through my body while she circled Guan and I to decide who she wanted as her apprentice. She would still give Dashi the first choice, but he knew that she would destroy someone like Guan," he said, not letting up on the attack. Somehow, this news didn't surprise him. "When I started training alone with her after rising to the level of Shoku, she was always tough, but she never gave me anything I couldn't handle. Although there were definitely times where I thought she forgot what it was like to be human."

"She was human?" Raimundo stopped attacking and again used his wind powers to move away from Chase.

"A long time ago she was cursed by spirits to be trapped in her current form for her disrespect. Dashi created a Shen Gong Wu that she could use to regain human form as a form of thank you for joining the Xiaolin side. When he hid it after defeating Wuya it created a permanent rift between two once close friends," Chase said, keeping his distance again. "It was enough to make her leave the Xiaolin side for good. She was my partner in evil for about a hundred years after she gave up her element."

"You're wrong Chase. She's on our side now," he shot back. He didn't like Minerva, he still suspected her in the robbery three weeks ago, but Master Fung trusted her and that should be proof enough that she was on their side. Right?

"Minerva's on no one's side but her own," Chase said, adopting the calm stance that he had originally held. "The moment the other side offers her a better deal she'll change without a second thought. She taught me more about being Heylin than Hannibal ever did. Deception, planning, manipulation, even how to give your enemies food poisoning. Albeit the last one was completely accidental."

"Nice to hear the food isn't another torture method," Rai said to himself.

"Not an intentional one. Not like the obstacle course," he replied, the last part barely audible.

"That thing was around fifteen-hundred years ago? You've gotta be kidding me," he said, incredulous that something that old and rickety was still in working order.

"She wouldn't let me move on until my performance on it was up to her standard," he said by way of explanation. "Has she issued a challenge to you yet?"

He stepped back from the warlord and eyed him suspiciously. _He might know a way to let me move on, but why should I tell my enemy about my training._ Ultimately, the need to move on with his training won out. "I have to hit her once."

"That's actually one of the easier ones she's issued," Chase said. "Don't misunderstand me, she'll out maneuver and out wit you at this stage in your training, but she has a fatal flaw. Arrogance. She'll never think that someone could find the loophole in all her offers."

Suddenly, the sorcerer's body jerked in a disturbing manner. By the time the convulsions stopped, he had changed into his dragon form. Raimundo tried to get away, but the dragon covered the distance faster than he would have thought possible. With one swipe of his claws, Chase knocked Raimundo over. He planted one of his feet on Rai's arm to prevent him from getting away and said in an intense whisper, "If she has any inkling that we had this conversation, I will see to it that your temple is burned to the ground." With that, he released Raimundo and by the time he had gotten up, the dragon man was gone.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Kimiko couldn't deny it any longer. When he came back to the temple last night with that bruise on his arm it sealed his fate in her mind. Raimundo was involved in the theft. She had been working her hardest for the past three weeks to push that thought from her mind –especially when he caught her after a tumble while training-, but the shape of the mark was identical to the footprints by the tree. She was about to go to Master Fung with her suspicions when morning training started.

It started out as usual, obstacle course, sparring, practice with Shen Gong Wu, but when they started practicing with their elements everything started to go wrong.

"Today," the old monk said. "We are working on subtlety. While it is easy to create a raging storm or an earthquake, controlling your element enough to make something small is much more difficult. Omi, I want you to move the boat from one side of the pond to the other without getting one drop of water on the deck." Master Fung gestured to a small sailboat and the tawny monk stepped up to the challenge. He preformed the task perfectly using little waves. Clay was next and slowly but surely, he managed to levitate one flower out of the garden.

Kimiko stared at the one diseased branch she was supposed to burn off the apple tree. She concentrated for a few moments, gathering her chi, and then sent a thin ribbon of flame at the withered branch. Everything seemed to be going perfectly when the fire she sent at the tree exploded into a raging inferno. She tried her best to stay calm and control it, but only Omi's water saved the rest of the orchard.

She stared dumbfounded at the destruction she caused while her friends ran up to her.

"Kimiko, what happened? You had everythin' under control and then it was like lettin' my cousin Norbert near the grill," Clay said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I don't know. I just lost control all of a sudden," she said, hanging her head to hide her fear and shame.

"Don't worry. I am sure that in time you will learn the secrets of controlling your element as well as I," Omi said, then cringed as he realized that he said the wrong thing. "I mean, it must have had to do with a disruption in the cosmic vibrations caused by an alignment of the stars." He grinned apologetically and she wished that Rai was here. For all she thought about him turning traitor, he always knew how to cheer her up.

"Omi is actually not far from the truth of the situation," Master Fung said, coming up behind the monks. "Come with me." The three of them followed him to a little used side room in the library filled with maps. The old monk rifled through a few piles before Dojo slithered into the room holding a dark blue scroll and muttering something about a wobbly table. Master Fung gave the dragon a quick glare before setting the scroll on the table.

"Every thousand years the stars in the constellations of Leo, Sagittarius, and Aires align in a certain way that allows for the powers of fire to grow to unimaginable strength for a few days. However, this power comes at the cost of the control of your abilities," he said, unrolling the star map. "What you experienced today is only a precursor to what will happen in three weeks time. I was hoping it would not start so soon." Kimiko shuddered at the thought of her powers being out of control like that again.

"Is there anything I can do to help keep control until then?" She asked.

"Your powers will remain reasonably under control until the time comes. You will just need to pay extra attention to what you are doing until then," Master Fung said, turning to leave the room. "I think we will end training there for the day."

"Wait, I have to learn to bring my powers back under control in case they get out of control before this star arrangement," she said, following Master Fung out of the room.

He stopped and paused for a few moments to think it over. "Alright Kimiko. You will begin to learn how to stop your element completely in case of an emergency tomorrow."

**Hey guys. Look at that button below. Cookies for everyone who presses it. Three reviews for me to continue. Beware of extreme fluff in the next chapter though. **


	6. Firefly

**I feel so guilty about the review thing last chapter...I'm never doing that again. This chapter didn't turn out the way I expected it to...it might work, but at the same time I doubt it's worth. Cookies for anyone who reviewed, thank you so much for doing so. My version of Microsoft Word gets all the credit for my grammar. :) **

**Disclaimer: My job as a riding instructor/exercise rider doesn't pay well enough to cover a day at the mall with my friends let alone a TV show. What do you think?  
**

**_Firefly_  
**

"Use your wind powers like that again and you will be running this course until Sirius goes supernova," Minerva said, not looking up from her scroll. "Nineteen fifty-three, again."

He nodded and began running again. This time he wouldn't overshoot the top of that hurdle. He spent most of last night thinking about what Chase had said, and he knew what he was going to have to do. After struggling through the rest of the course like usual, he came to the hurdles. He couldn't afford to mess up again, if he used his wind powers then she would actually pay attention to what he was doing.

Rai landed on the top of the last hurdle for a split second, and then he used his powers to launch himself into the air. On the way down, he used his powers again to give himself more speed. He prepared himself for impact and a split second later, his feet met well-groomed feathers.

The griffin let out a cry that was more of shock than of pain. "What in the name of Thoth was that?" She hissed, scrambling to her feet and knocking him over in the process.

"You said that for my training to progress I had to hit you. You failed to mention when or where," he said standing up and nonchalantly dusting himself off. He remembered what Chase said last night about the loopholes and thought long and hard about how she had worded her challenge. It was better than playing poker with the guys only to have Kimiko leave when he entered the room. It was like she didn't want him around anymore.

"Clever boy," she said. If that beak could have formed a smile, he would have sworn that it would have. "You were much slower to achieve your goal than my last apprentice though."

"By last apprentice you mean Chase right or are there other evil masterminds you've worked with?" He said.

"I was wondering when you were going to figure that out," she said, walking down the path "And no, I have not trained anyone before or since Chase. As you can tell, this was not my first choice of job."

"But you were evil right?" He asked, following her down the trail. "How do I know that you're not going to turn on us when it's convenient?"

"There is something you have to understand so listen carefully boy. I won't be repeating this if you are too stupid to follow along. Not good and evil are two very different things. Yes, I have worked for both sides in the past, but never due to allegiance to either. It was either because I felt allegiance to the people I was working with, or they could give me what I wanted," she said.

"That doesn't answer my question," he said, following her into the cave.

"I'm not going to lie to you. If Chase or Wuya gave me the right offer, I wouldn't think for very long about it. Ra, if I was offered the right price I would work with that maggot Jack. But by the same train of thought, I would stay with the temple of they keep up their side of the bargain this time," she said.

This time she led him to an unfamiliar tunnel by the sparring hollow. From the rough floor, he could tell that it wasn't used often. She gave the door at the end a series of quick taps from beak and talons and it opened to reveal a collection of weapons that even Guan's armory could not match.

"As the first step up in your training, I've decided to allow you to work with weapons on a dummy," she said, pacing around in the room and examining her collection. "Do not however assume that I will take time out of that obstacle course or your academic work. This is coming out of your break periods." His jaw dropped at the idea of loosing the one hour of the day where he didn't have to worry about either training or freezing to death at night.

"That's inhumane," he mumbled.

"Remind me boy, who was it that ambushed me? Whoever that was must have thought that they were ready for the next level of training," she said, looking over a thin steel knife. "As for your first assignment, I have a toothbrush somewhere. I want you to start dusting when I get back with it. In the meantime, feel free have a look around, but if you touch anything you'll wish that I was on the Heylin side."

He walked around the room while she left to find what he was sure would be his toothbrush. Most of the weapons were long, cruel looking daggers or longbows, including one covered in black and white markings that he instinctively knew used to be a Wudai weapon. There were a few of the scimitar like, two handed, swords that he tended to favor, and a pair of ornate, black and gold, fans that he couldn't help but think were still bloodstained.

At the far end of the room was a pair of black, katana like swords with pale blue-green Chinese characters running up and down their blades. In spite of Minerva's threat, he felt like it would be the most natural thing in the world for him to wield them right then and there. Raimundo's hand reached out for the left sword, but before his fingers could close around the hilt, a cough from behind him broke the blade's mesmerizing spell.

"I wonder if I could count that as touching?" She asked. "I unexpectedly got a used rack a couple hundred years ago in Spain and I haven't had the slightest occasion to try it out."

"I didn't touch it," he replied, quickly glancing at the toothbrush at her feet. Damn, it was his.

"You're lucky I'm not that bored today. If you had broken, scratched, or smudged them, like I'm sure you would, I wouldn't be that merciful. Those once belonged to the greatest warrior of all time," she said, nudging one of them back into place on its shelf.

He shuddered at the thought of those magnificent swords being in the hands of Chase Young. "You mean to tell me that those belonged to Chase at one point?"

The griffin practically collapsed in fits of laughter. "Him? Wield Flotsam and Jetsam? They told me you had a sense of humor, but really," she said. "Chase, the greatest warrior of all time! He's pretty good, but he, Guan, and I could go three on one with Dashi and still loose. Those boy, are the weapons of a Grandmaster Dragon."

He stared at the swords with renewed awe. He couldn't believe that Grand Master Dashi had once held those jet black blades. "Now, where are my manners? I've kept you from your duties far too long. Start dusting now. I'll be back in half an hour to inspect your work and if it's work that I would expect from the incompetent you are, I think a nice little run might be in order," she said. Raimundo picked up his toothbrush and began to work. He knew her definition of "nice little run" was nine miles up and down treacherous mountain trails at a pace of her choice. He could see in her eyes that she resented being outwitted, it would be a long three days.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

_What was that noise?_ She thought, her eyes snapping open. There it was again, a tapping noise right above her head. Whatever was making the noise was moving towards the center of the temple. She jumped off her mat and ran to the door. A series of quick flips later she was on the roof of the temple. A shadowy figure was lying down at the other end of the roof.

She walked over and she couldn't say she was surprised when she saw who it was. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I couldn't sleep," Raimundo admitted sheepishly. Like he expected her to believe that. Every other time he got back from training he slept even more soundly than usual. She rolled her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard something moving up here. I thought it might be another break in," she said. He sighed like expected this response and she was suddenly aware of the space three weeks of suspicion could create between people.

"What's training like without me here?" he asked after a few moments of uncomfortable silence.

"Actually, it's sort of like training with you here. Only without peanut butter volcanoes," she said, remembering a past prank.

"So it's boring as all hell," he said, sitting up.

"Pretty much," she said. What was he playing at? He must be trying to get her away so he could get at more of the Shen Gong Wu. "What's your training like?" Despite Omi's best efforts, they had been unable to get any real information out of Raimundo as to the nature of his individual training.

"It's harsh," he said. "There are times when I'm sure my mentor doesn't care if I survive her instruction."

"What does she do?" She asked, sitting down next to him.

"One time, I was hanging by my fingers over a lava pit. I asked for help, and she didn't look up from her scroll," he said. "I don't think she even knows my name. She just calls me "boy.""

"I'm sure she at least knows that. You must cause enough problems at her temple for her to know it," she joked.

"I tried pulling a prank on her once. She figured it out and reset it to get me instead," he said. "I had strawberry cool whip in my hair all day." She couldn't help but smile at the idea of someone getting Rai back for something he did.

"At least now we have an explanation for "the case of the missing cool whip." Dojo's been springing bad CSI references on us for two weeks," she said.

"Well, when something gets between a dragon and his deserts, all I can say is that he won't get fooled again," he said. She laughed, and for that moment, it felt like old times. Just the two of them joking around by the pond.

"What are you learning at the other temple? Other than how to avoid questions," she asked. He wasn't going to get out of telling her the truth this time. She would find out, by any means, why he was on the roof this late.

"First off, it's not a temple. It's a cave," he said, before describing the lessons he took. She couldn't help but laugh at the idea of the usually unable to sit still boy sitting at a desk for hours on end studying. The humorous mood didn't last as he told her about the sparring matches that left him drained mentally and physically and magic practice that always managed to end in disaster. His story about outwitting the griffin and seeing Dashi's swords was absolutely amazing. She couldn't help but think about how jealous Omi would be about that.

"The only part of my training that isn't incredibly hard is the cooking, and that's only because I'm very motivated not to eat what she makes," he said. "I think the only appliance that gets used by anyone other than me is the latté maker. She's completely addicted to caffeine."

"I can't picture you doing anything like that," she said. "Maybe you could borrow that apron from Dojo."

"Maybe," he said, taking his jade green eyes away from her face to look up at the sky. "Have you ever really noticed how pretty the stars are?" She flinched when he mentioned the stars. The thought of loosing control of her powers was terrifying.

"You just had to bring that up didn't you?" She asked, turning away from him and counting to ten to calm down.

"What did I say?" He asked, putting his hand on her shoulder. It was all she could do to remember that he was a traitor.

"The part about the stars. You know what's going on," she said.

"No, I don't," he said. This was the first time she had actually thought about it. No one would have told Raimundo about the Time of the Lion because as usual he just went straight to the showers and then to bed.

She proceeded to tell him about how in one month she would loose control of her powers and about the lessons she was taking with Master Fung to make her powers just stop working altogether in case of emergency.

"I know you can handle it," he said, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. It amazed her how despite her cold treatment of him these past few weeks, he could just fall back into being there for her like nothing happened. It really was too bad it was all an act. "You've got more self control then I could ever hope for and you're one the smartest people I've ever met."

"Thanks, but I don't really want to talk about it," she said. It was easier to deal with if she didn't think about it.

"I know how you feel. It's easier to train if I'm not thinking about what Minerva's asking me to do. I just concentrate on how it's going to make me a better leader," he said, pausing unnaturally, like he was thinking about what he was going to say next. She expected a confession, but was shocked by what he said. "And I think about you a lot."

She didn't know what to say to that. Rai was a traitor. He was just saying it to make her feel like he was on her side. However, there was a little part of her that wanted to believe that it was true. If he had told her this three weeks ago, she wouldn't have hesitated to tell him that she reciprocated his feelings, but now?

Somehow, the part of her that believed him was stronger than every rational thought telling her that it was a lie. Not by much though. She placed her hand on top of his and said, "I'm glad that I was the only one to hear you moving around."

"Me too. If it were anyone else, they might have thought that I was up to something and not given me the chance to explain," he replied. He really knew how to break the mood of the moment. She drew her hand away and faced him. It was as good a time as any to confront him, even if reluctantly.

"Honestly, I thought you were," she admitted. "Can you truthfully tell me that you didn't steal those Shen Gong Wu?" In the dim light from the lanterns below, she could see the hurt spreading in his jade eyes, and then understanding.

"Kimiko, I promise that I will never betray the temple ever again. I did it once and that was enough for me," he said, taking her hand back. "I guess I understand why you thought I was. I mean, sneaking around in the middle of the night's not exactly i." He sounded a little flustered and nervous. Not entirely surprising as he had admitted that he liked her and been accused of betraying the temple in the same five minutes.

She knew that he was telling the truth this time. She almost felt a little guilty about believing that he had betrayed the temple. Not that she didn't have reasons, and she felt disappointed in herself for letting those reasons slide.

"I think I can make it up to you," she said. "Can I borrow your iPod?"

Rai looked at her skeptically before replying. "Sure? What for?"

"To give us a reason to be up on the roof," she said. "You get that and meet me back here in ten minutes." She was finally going to see what he found enjoyable pulling stupid pranks.

"Alright," he said, walking towards the edge.

She returned to the roof a few minutes later with baking soda, vinegar, a large vase that Dojo kept muttering about replacing, blue food coloring, and confetti. Raimundo was already waiting for her with his iPod and a cord that she could only assume led to the temple PA system.

"Ay, this is much better than hiding your phone in the wall," he said, seeing her set up the vase. "Although you might want to move it a little to the left. By now, the monks know better than to come out through the center."

"You would know wouldn't you," she laughed. The Brazilian boy merely shrugged and with an all too practiced motion, plugged in his iPod.

"Okay. Before I hit play, you have to give us preliminary scores. From one to ten in the categories of escapeability, execution, style, and planning," he said.

She thought for a moment before replying. "Six for escapeability because we're in the middle of the temple and I think it's three in the morning, seven for execution, eight for style, and a four for planning because this was really just spur of the moment,"

"You really think there's a whole lot of thought in what I do on my own?" he asked. She wasn't going to honor that comment with a response. "You might want to cover your ears. This isn't going to be pretty. And just as a heads up, you might want to think about putting in the baking soda before they start looking for where the sound is coming from."

"Roger dodger commando," she said, rolling her eyes and covering her ears. Even so, she still couldn't block out the opening chords of Ice, Ice, Baby. Within seconds, monks flooded out of the dorms and into the courtyard. She poured the box of baking soda into the vinegar concoction filled vase and tipped it over. Moments later, the entire area was covered in a blue foam and confetti.

"Here's where we run," he said, taking her hand and leading her off the roof. She had to admit, as far as first dates went, this one was exhilarating. They would have gotten away safely had they not run into a certain dragon scratching his back on the pavement stones.

"Am I ever glad you guys woke up the rest of the temple. I think I've got a major Shen Gong Wu alert and somebody put my cream in jello again," Dojo said, rubbing the oddly shaped hives on his nose.

"Raimundo buddy. This time you've gone too far," Clay said, turning the corner, his hat an interesting shade of cerulean.

"Yes. You have dabbled in dark forces powerful enough to create a noise like this," Omi said, clutching his ears.

"You guys can work out your revenge later. We've got to deal with this before my scales fall off," Dojo said, morphing into his larger form. "And Clay, Masters Shu and Vic owe us ten bucks." He gestured to Raimundo and Kimiko standing off to the side still holding hands.

"What are we looking for?" She asked.

"I'll tell you when we're flying. I've already got a bag of Wu. Let's get out of here," the dragon said, pulling a bag and the scroll out from behind a pot. The monks jumped on and they took off. "Next stop, Saratoga Springs. We just need to make a little detour."

"What could possibly be more important than getting the Shen Gong Wu before the forces of darkness descend upon the land?" Omi said with a rather irritated expression.

"Making sure that a certain cranky teacher doesn't behead me for not letting her know that the Griffin's Wing just went active," he replied. Kimiko felt Rai shudder behind her and couldn't help but feel like this was not going to go well at all.

**Mon Dieu. This was not exactly the best thing that I've ever written. Everything will all be clear in time. Feel free to flame. Or just review. That would be lovely. **


	7. Call to Post

**Sorry 'bout the short chapter guys. Again, thanks for the reviews and the favorites/alerts. Updates can't come as quickly as they used to because of Field Hockey practices and potential chemistry disasters. And if Omi's slang mess up disturbs some people, I'm sorry. I've been sitting on that one since I started this story. **

**Disclaimer: If I owned Xiaolin Showdown there would be more RaiKim and Chase would have appeared shirtless long before the last episode. **

_**Call to Post**_

"You know what you have to do worm," Chase said to the red haired boy fiddling with a remote. "If the Xiaolin warriors get to this Shen Gong Wu the consequences will be great."

"But isn't the goal for one of them to do the showdown anyway?" Jack asked. "Wouldn't it just be faster to let Kimiko at the Wu?"

"You fail to see what I'm trying to do. I don't care about who gets it, I just want to strike up a deal with an old friend," he said. "Just make it look like you were trying to keep her from getting at it, and on the same train of thought, give yourself an excuse to not get to it immediately. Being beaten works and it's believable for you."

"I don't get why you're not so harsh with Wuya," Jack muttered.

"Because she knows her job and will do it right," he said, a little too quickly. "If you want to keep your job as my assistant then you'll do the same."

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~x~x~X~X~X~X~X

"There it is kids, Saratoga. Home to the sport of kings. Of course when we were here it was a bunch of trees," Dojo said. "It's some time around four. There's no one here for another two hours. We need to get done by then." He touched down in a grassy area in the center of the track and shrunk back to his smaller size.

Minerva landed a few minutes before they had and was currently nervously jogging around the middle grass track. She hadn't said much on the way over, but he could tell that the prospect of retrieving a Shen Gong Wu that could make her human again excited her. Of course, she had to wait for Dojo to tell her exactly where it was before she started digging up the grandstand.

It sort of disturbed him to see the change that had come over his mentor as he told her about the situation. She had gone from calmly lapping hot tea from a porcelain cup to frantically darting around her kitchen trying to clean tea off her book and pottery shards off the floor within moments. She had always moved quickly, but this time her gangly legs skittered across the smooth floor in a disorderly manner that he could only think meant she was desperate. And he knew that desperate people would do next to anything.

"Alright gecko, where the hell is the Wu?" She said, jumping over a hedge to get to them.

"It's buried somewhere around here," he replied, sniffing the ground like a bloodhound.

"I'm feelin' somethin' weird in the ground over there," Clay said, walking towards a large man made pond with a fountain. Raimundo and the others followed him until he stopped. "Dojo, is this another one of those movin' Wu?"

"It shouldn't be," the dragon said. "I think I put the Falcon's Eye in the bag, can one of you see what's down there?"

"Sure," Kimiko said, pulling it out of the bag. As she looked at the ground, he began to feel vibrations in the dirt. Raimundo jumped to pull her back just in time for the ground to explode beneath where she was. The storm of dirt cleared a few moments later to reveal Jack's latest burrowing robot. A piece of silver fell from the mole-like snout of the vehicle.

"Greetings Xiaolin Losers. It is I, Jack Spicer. Evil boy genius. Leave now or face the wrath of my improved Jackbot 10,000's" the red-haired boy said, opening the hatch of his digging robot.

"Jack Spicer, I order you to step away from my hibachi or I shall be forced to roast your donkey upon it," Omi shouted, taking an offensive position.

"You psychopaths are supposed to be the good guys?" He shrieked. Kimiko looked at Rai and rolled her eyes. He had to agree with her. Jack had been around Omi for far too long to think that his rendition of "Get out of my grill or I'll kick your ass" was to be taken literally.

Jack was so worked up over Omi's mangled slang that he almost didn't notice Minerva sneaking towards the Shen Gong Wu. Wuya however, didn't overlook this. "Jack you fool. Release the robots!" She yelled. For once, Jack didn't fumble with the remote as what looked like ordinary Jackbots were released from the base of the Mole Machine.

Their sheer numbers were enough to beat the group back from the Wu. The four of them tried to get into Wudai Orion Formation, but lasers shot from the robots forced them to break it up before they could finish.

Raimundo lost track of the rest of the team in the fray. He flipped around trying to break the robots, dodging laser beams and buzz saw blades all the while. Using his wind powers, he threw some of them into the pond and shorted them out. While he made two of the robots crash into each other, he looked for Kimiko. After hearing about what was happening with her powers, he couldn't help but worry.

He smiled when he realized that he didn't have to. She hopped around fusing circuits to make the robot's systems crash without a problem. The rest of the team was fairing similarly well. Omi was using his water to ruin the burrowing machine, despite Jack's best efforts flying around and using the Thorn of Thunderbolt. Clay faced off with Wuya by the quarter post and kept her from getting to the Shen Gong Wu. Unfortunately, she also prevented him from getting it. The only one having a problem was ironically Minerva. She was unused to the robots and he figured out quickly in sparring that while she could out move anyone, she wasn't particularly strong, so their armor plating kept them safe.

He tried to make a break for the Wu, but yet again, the robots kept him back. _I can't believe it. Jack actually made something that worked. Sort of_, he thought, hitting chink in the armor that caused the Jackbot to completely collapse. Suddenly, a streak of gray and sandy tan rushed by him towards the Wu. His mentor, it seemed, had found the same weak spot as he had.

A golden light flooded the area as her talons fell on the silver at the same time as a gloved hand. "Chase, it's been far too long," she said.

"I know old friend," he said. "I think the last time was when you were controlling the prime minister."

"I know you're not here to reminisce, so let's get this over with. I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown," she said.

"I accept. The game's a chariot race. Three times around the track," he said. Rai couldn't believe what he was hearing. Even for Chase that seemed unfair. He was pretty sure that Minerva couldn't handle a chariot in her current form.

His suspicions were confirmed a few moments later when she squawked, "You know very well that I can't do that." The Heylin sorcerer made a quick gesture with his hand, and she quieted down and they continued their conversation in hushed tones.

"Alright. I'll wager our Shroud of Shadows against your Tongue of Saiping," she said a few moments later. "Kimiko, come over here." She gave him one uncertain look as she walked towards the griffin.

"Dojo, what's going on?" He asked, watching the two of them talk quietly.

"It's a completely legal move known as a Showdown Substitution. If one of the warriors challenged cannot perform the showdown, then they can choose to take a substitute so long as the other side has the option to do the same," Dojo said. "I don't think Chase's going to take the option."

He wasn't listening to the last part however. Kimiko and Minerva stood still as statues, neither so much as breathing. Kimiko's face bore an expression of intense concentration and her eyes were closed. With a rasping breath, her eyes opened, and for the briefest of moments, they were a cold blue-gray.

**Hey guys. I'm running out of witty ways to say review. I might just bribe everyone with virtual cookies. Long reviews make me very very happy. **


	8. When in Rome

**Hey guys. I'm back and I've learned some new tricks. For example, how to make a cake stick to a greased nonstick pan and . Either way, I'm moderately proud of how this came out. Most of it was written some time around two am while I watched Simply Ming and Nova so it could have been stranger. HealingSpringWaters, you're right in a way. **

**On a different note, I saw Inception and all I can say is wow. **

**Disclaimer: Do I even need this? I'm going to not use it and see what happens.**

**_When in Rome_  
**

_Strong arms wrapped around her. She removed one of her hands from the reins and brought it back to her ear. "You're my lover later. You're my teacher now," she laughed._

_"You learn very quickly," a man whispered in her ear. "I can't believe you didn't already know."_

_"It was the one thing my father denied me. Knowledge, horses, weapons, anything but a chariot ride," she said, tensing a little as one of the horses fidgeted. There were some benefits to being the head scribe's only child. "And I can't bear not knowing something."_

_"That's what makes you so irresistible," he said, playing with a strand of her hair. "At least this will be easier to hide than Alchemy. Nobody can find us here and there won't be any odd smells." He removed one of his arms from her waist and indicated the empty desert around them._

_"If your brother wasn't an idiot then you wouldn't have to hide your "Witchcraft" hobby," she said._

_"Half brother," he reminded her. This was the only time they could express their disgust with the moron that –in their minds anyway- didn't belong on the throne. "Let's get started before I start planning another assassination attempt."_

_He showed her how to flick the reins to make the horses walk on and after a few minutes, showed her how to turn, his hands guiding hers whenever she was unsure. Were it anyone else teaching her, she would have been terrified, but she knew that if she messed up he would only be too willing to help her out and tease her about it when they were alone later. They continued until later in the day when they were satisfied with the progress that she made._

Kimiko's eyes slid open slowly, her mind still reeling from seeing the griffin's memory. She had been absolutely shocked to see that it was a human memory, and an almost tender one at that, almost as shocked has she had been to hear Chase calling Raimundo's mentor "old friend."

"Do you think you have the basics?" She asked. Kimiko found it hard to pick the odd voice that she had spoken within the memory from the British accent she now possessed.

"Yeah," she replied, her voice barely more than a whisper. She was still slightly unnerved by what Minerva told her before the memory.

"_Before I do this, I want to warn you. This is a risky spell. You could be reduced to little more than a gibbering shell, forced to relive my life until the end of your days. I have to tell you, it would be an extremely unpleasant experience," she said. It wasn't enough to deter her. She nodded and the griffin started muttering in an ancient tongue. _

"Alright. Now get over there right now and get me that Wu. Failure is not an option," she said. Kimiko nodded and jogged over to the area where the Wu was lying. Raimundo was right when he said that she was terrifying. She had seen the cold, calculating determination in her eyes.

When she got over to the Wu, she was expecting Chase to meet her for the Showdown. Instead, Jack waited confidently by the silver circle. "Ready to loose ash girl?" He sneered.

"You're going down Jack," she said, putting her hand next to his on the hollow ring. "Gong Yi Tan Pi!"

A warm, golden glow engulfed the area, and when it faded, the racetrack was replaced with a Roman stadium. Two bronze and wood chariots stood at the starting line. One pulled by a brilliant chestnut horse, the other animal was black as night. Both of them looked unruly and powerful. As she took the reins, she prayed that the man's instructions would be enough to get her through this showdown.

Chase and Minerva stood in a boxed off area, each of them holding a corner of a white flag. Simultaneously, they dropped their end and she flicked the reins exactly as Minerva had done in the memory.

Jack bypassed any attempt at driving himself and instead used his Shen Gong Wu's power to talk to the horse and explain what was expected of him. Within moments, he had passed her. She flicked the reins again in an attempt to make the horse go faster, but to no avail. By the time they reached the far turn, Jack was in the lead by a considerable amount.

_Why didn't she wager a useful Wu?_ She thought. She couldn't use the Shroud to get ahead, and she couldn't take her hands of the reins to use her powers. Even if she could, she wasn't sure if she dared. The pounding of the red horse's hooves on the dirt resonated in her ears, each step telling her that she wasn't skilled enough to catch Jack.

She wished that the griffin had given her another memory where she knew enough to be able to do more than stand in the chariot and hope for the best. Maybe she didn't have any others, maybe she thought that her mind could only handle one memory and the basics would be the best way to go.

The horse's stride opened up on the strait away, but it wasn't enough to catch up to Jack before he completed the first lap. The motion of the chariot jerked her body around, making her internal organs feel like soup.

"Hey Kimiko, since this Wu is so needed by your team, I figure you'll want to up the ante," Jack said. She wouldn't agree to this. Not trailing him the way she was. He would probably just suggest another Shen Gong Wu that she couldn't use.

"Is that even legal?" She asked, looking up at Dojo and the rest of the Xiaolin Warriors as she went by. All of whom were dressed in togas.

"According to Appendix F, Section B, Subsection five, of the updated rulebook it's called a Xiaolin Trifecta," Dojo said as she went by. She didn't hear what he said next because of the headache she was beginning to get. She figured it was from essentially being a sack of potatoes in the back of a quasi high-speed vehicle.

"Fine Jack. I accept," she said, wincing as they whipped around the turn. It couldn't make things worse than they already were.

"Your Quill of the Bard against my Lotus Twister," he said. Her face could barely contain the shock learning that it was Jack that broke into the vault. She almost felt guilty about suspecting Rai now. Although there were plenty of reasons to do so.

"Fine," she said, gritting her teeth against the splitting pain in her head. This wasn't going to end well. The raven feather materialized in the chariot next to her, and she began scrawling on her hand. This was either going to be amazing or fail completely.

A tiger materialized in front of Jack's Chariot. Her horse stopped short. suddenly, this wasn't looking like such a good idea. The animal snorted nervously, and retreated a few paces. Jack's horse did almost exactly the same. She tightened her grip on the reins as she waited for what would happen next. The tiger flexed its newly formed, striped shoulders, and examined his new prey with familiar yellow cat eyes.

It stretched its massive head up and roared. The black horse reared, snapping the leather straps on the chariot, before turning, and bolting, still trailing the reins after it. The red horse was about to do the same, but Kimiko managed to hold him together until the illusory tiger vanished into nothing.

As she went by Jack and the rubble, feeling elated that the illusion worked, she felt the vehicle slow down considerably. She turned her head, and saw Jack hanging onto the edge of the basket with unnaturally long, rubbery arms. The goth sneered up at her as his arms shortened dramatically, bringing him up to the basket. He couldn't get on to it yet, but she couldn't move back to kick him off.

A neigh came from behind her, and the chestnut stopped short, ears perked to try to hear more. Jack used the wasted inertia to launch himself into her legs. She fell forwards and almost toppled out.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. She slipped the Shroud over herself before Jack could recover and climbed onto the wooden bar connecting the harness to the basket. She struggled to keep her balance as Jack used the Tongue of Saiping to get the horse to move again. If not for years of standing motionless on shifting poles, she would have fallen below the wheels.

She wasn't sure if she could take another time and a half around the track like this. Especially with the steadily worsening headache. It was better than fighting with Jack for control though. She inched forwards on the bar until she was dangerously close to the horse's massive hooves. She fought for her balance again when the vehicle made a sharp corner.

They went by the start again and she saw her friends searching the track for her. Jack waved arrogantly to Wuya and Chase, both of which glared at him. The griffin paced nervously back and forth in the box, looking for her chance at an almost forgotten body. As they flew past the far turn, she kicked off one shoe and started to loosen the pin holding the harness and basket together with her toes.

The black mare, previously panicked and wild, loped easily by them going the opposite way. For a moment, they were side by side and in that moment, she pulled the pin and jumped for the back of what looked to be the calmer animal.

The horse startled a little when she landed on her back and grabbed at the remains of the reins, but remained controllable. The monks had never covered this in their riding lessons, but from seeing the way the remaining chariot fell apart when she pulled the pin, she was pretty sure Jack was no longer a threat. She turned the mare around and kicked her into a trot. Shedding the Shroud, they rounded the final turn and finished the showdown to the cheers of her friends.

The stadium collapsed in on itself and they were standing by the pond again. The boys enveloped her in a group hug, Raimundo holding on for a few seconds longer than the others. Minerva picked up the silver circle and told Raimundo that he was to under no circumstances show up this week. He nodded in half understanding, still holding Kimiko.

"You were doing so well, and then you just had to get greedy didn't you?" Wuya yelled. She watched the evil trio get into the mole machine. Chase smirked at them before he closed the hatch, as if he actually won.

"You don't mind if I rest my head on your shoulder?" She asked Rai while they leapt onto Dojo's back. Her head felt like it was about to explode.

"Nah. You deserve to relax a little. That was amazing," he said.

"Yes Kimiko. Your coming back from the edge of defeat was quite amazing," Omi said from up front. She smiled and closed her eyes. Rai put his arm around her to keep her from falling.

"Don't worry. I'll keep you safe," a voice whispered in her ear.

"Rai I'm fine," she replied. She hoped that the voice that she heard wasn't the one she thought it was.

"Kimiko, no one said anything," he replied.

"I still can't believe you'll go charging around on the back of a horse, but are afraid of a boat," the voice said.

Her eyes shot open and her breathing quickened. She wasn't hearing the voice. She was remembering it. The fear of the rocking vessel below her feet, the vivid colors of the desert sunset, a final plan for the pair of them to take power. The whole thing a memory that didn't belong.

**Gimme an R. Gimme an E. Gimme a V. Gimme an I. I'm not a cheerleader so I don't feel like spelling the rest of it out for you, but please do review. Either way, review and give my pep band hating self a reason to smile.  
**


	9. Flame On

**Hey guys. I'm wicked sorry this one took so long. I've been so busy lately I haven't been able to get to this. Don't worry, I'm going to keep going with this. I have the feeling that this is sort of repetitive, either way enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I'm way too lazy to think of a clever, witty, or snarky one this time. I own nothing.  
**

"Kimiko come on. Open the door. What's going on?" He asked, standing outside her room. She ran in there almost immediately after Dojo landed and had stayed in there all day. He, Omi, and Clay had tried everything to get her to come out, and each attempt failed.

The expression on her face as she ran by them was so horrified, so haunted, that no one knew what to do. He couldn't figure out what Jack had done to her during the Showdown. She was fine until Dojo took off, and even then she only acted strange for a few moments. She had even joked around with them until they were almost back at the temple.

"Raimundo, maybe it is best to let her be," Omi said, tugging on his sleeve. "This might have something to do with her powers." There was a little part of him that agreed with the kid. Maybe he couldn't help her, but he had to try.

"Omi, I don't think it's a good idea to leave her alone if it is her powers acting up or if it's something else." He remembered the way her eyes looked after she came out of the trance. If she was in total control of her mind right now, he was the Pope. Given that he hadn't attended Mass since he was twelve, he was reasonably sure he wasn't the Pope.

"I know my friend, but like Master Fung says, "In changing the course of a river, you may flood a village,"" Omi said, patting him on the arm and walking away. It was almost the exact same thing Clay said when he left them an hour ago to vent his frustration on the weeds in the garden.

He sat down against the wall and ran his hand through his hair. _What was it she said earlier? "Rai I'm fine." What did she mean by that?_ Suddenly, he had an idea. It was at the same time exhilarating and revolting. Whatever was going on her head, the Mind Reader Conch would let him see it, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to. He ran down to the vault to get the Wu, and back with speed that would have made even Minerva proud.

He took a deep breath and pointed the conch at the door. It was now or never. He saw images of her friends flash by, a few of the two of them, memories of training and her life in Tokyo.

However, between these images, there were others. Some that he was sure weren't a part of Kimiko's mind. Mainly because of the tall man who showed up in most of these quickly forced out memories. It could also have been that there were also times in later memories where she would look down and see the talons of a giant bird.

He quickly put down the conch. He knew he had to talk with her. First the problems with her powers, and now having that psycho's memories in her head. "Kim, please open the door. I need to talk to you." He waited for a few moments, then he used a thin tendril of wind to jimmy the lock, all the while cursing Master Fung for giving them doors in the first place. When he pushed the door open, he was unprepared for what he saw.

She was lying on her cot, curled into a ball. Her eyes were wide open and her face was tearstained. She glanced up at him momentarily, but her gaze fell almost instantly back to the blank spot on the wall that she was staring at like it was a matter of life and death.

Kimiko had always been the strong one in the group. No matter what happened, him or Omi turning to the dark side, Clay's mind getting taken over by Sabini, the battle after he was made Shoku, she always tried to find a way to fight on. Even when things were at their most hopeless, she tried to come up with a plan. Seeing her like this scared him.

"Kim, what happened?" He asked, sitting down next to her. Her eyes flicked to him and back to the wall again.

She took a ragged breath before speaking, "Your mentor gave me a memory to help me win the showdown. The spell went wrong." If he hadn't seen it himself, he wouldn't have believed that Minerva would make a mistake.

"What went wrong?" He asked, although he already knew.

"I don't know. As soon as the showdown was over, I started remembering things that I've never seen. I feel like if I don't constantly concentrate on me, I'll loose myself, and it's getting worse. I can't keep everything out now," she whispered, sitting up and hugging her knees to her chest. Because he couldn't think of anything that could say that would make her feel better, he put his arms around her.

For a few seconds, she seemed to relax, but then she tensed up worse than before. He let go and scooted a few inches away. "Sorry," he said.

"It's not your fault," she said, her voice thick like she was about to burst into tears. "Anything can and will set this off. Earlier, coming back from the showdown, I couldn't stop thinking about how terrified I was of that gods be damned boat." If he was unnerved earlier, he was really scared now. Not necessarily her voice, but her tone, was a dead ringer for that griffin's.

"There has to be a way to reverse this. Maybe Master Fung would know something," he said.

"I don't think so," she paused, thinking about something. "I'm not even entirely sure it was an accident. The way she and Chase were talking before the showdown…"

To his mind, it was a reasonable theory. He remembered the desperation in her eyes when she lounged for the Shen Gong Wu. She would have done anything to get it.

"You think she's trying to drive you insane?" He asked, a plan forming in his head.

"I don't know. Rai don't do anything stupid," she replied. "I just want this to be over."

"I know. I promise nothing reckless," he said, before using his powers to move a small item from his room over to him. "I know that when I'm upset I like to hold Ninja Fred. You want to see if that makes things easier?" He held out the sort of ratty old bear to her. She took it hesitantly.

"Thanks," she said, holding it to her chest.

"I'm just going to see if Master Fung knows anything that might help. I'll be back in a little bit," he said, standing and leaving her room. Raimundo didn't like the idea of lying to her, but he didn't want anyone to try and stop or help him.

He went back to the vault and switched the Conch for the Long Yi Kite and the Sword of the Storm. He didn't think as he flew over to the cave. If he did that, he might loose his nerve.

When he got to the cave, the air was eerily quiet and still, almost cutting off his powers. Something about the place seemed wrong. Not really bad, just wrong. The hallways lacked the air freshener smell that normally overwhelmed him, there was a stray book sitting on a library table, and a half empty crystal goblet of wine sat on a ledge in the river cave. Disorder that normally wouldn't have been tolerated.

He moved slowly towards the kitchen, sword drawn in case he was right about Minerva. He opened the door a crack and checked it before entering. Through the thin slit, he saw a tanned hand, coated up to the first finger joint with red, reaching towards a knife.

"I know you're there boy," she said. He swore under his breath and opened the door all the way. Sitting at the table was a tall, bony, middle-eastern looking woman in her early twenties cutting an apple. She was wearing a stormy gray monks robe shot through with blue and a silver sash. He could still recognize the griffin in her angular face and eyes. "I thought I told you to leave me alone."

"What did you do to her?" He asked, his eyes narrowing dangerously and raising his sword.

"The girl knew the risks going into it. This could have happened to anyone," she said, examining her freshly painted nails. "I think I might get this done professionally tomorrow. I've never painted my nails and I have to say, it is quite entertaining."

"Don't change the subject," he snarled. Her eyebrow rose questioningly, then resumed eating her apple.

"If there is nothing further to say about the subject, then there is no sense in continuing the conversation. Now, I told you to get going. I have a body to get used to," she said between bites. He could feel the rage pounding in his head. She didn't care about how Kimiko was going slowly insane because of her actions.

"How is there noting more to say? You'd never make a mistake. You're obsessed with being perfect and you'd do anything to get what you want. This. Was. No. Accident," he shouted. In spite of him, the woman retained her icy calm.

"Listen boy," she said, brushing a stray strand of black hair behind her ear. "I did nothing wrong. I warned her, she still wanted to do it. It is a difficult spell for even the most experienced sorceresses. She should consider herself lucky she's still sane. That means that she only got part of my life" Her voice was that of someone discussing the weather.

"You think you're human, but there's something wrong with how you know that Kimiko's suffering through your messed up life and you don't care. I can't even do anything because whenever I try to comfort her, all she can see is your whacko boyfriend," he said. All of a sudden, her grip tightened around the knife and she shot to her feet.

"Take it back," she said, her voice taking on a feral quality. Even though she looked unsteady on her feet, he still couldn't help but feel slightly worried. At the same time, he was elated that he found a chink in her armor.

"No. Not until you tell me how to fix this," he said. "Did you tell him that you'd be his forever? How long did that last after getting immortality?" In a split second, she shifted her hold on the knife and her normally cool, logical façade fell apart. His eyes grew wide as he looked at the knife, still quivering, embedded in the door next to him.

"Get out of my sight this instant and never come back here," she snarled, cold eyes filled with pure disgust fixed on him. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

He begrudgingly turned and left the room, furious with himself that he had let his temper get in the way of making Kimiko better. If he had looked over his shoulder, he would have seen her sink back into the chair, her head clasped in her hands.

X~X~x~X~X~X~X~X~X

"Are you sure this will work?" The goth boy said, tightening a bolt.

"I've been waiting for this moment for almost a thousand years," Chase replied, looking up at him from the base of the tower. "Besides worm, I've got my secret weapon in play."

"Yeah, you're trusting someone on their side. A sure thing this'll work," Jack called down.

"The only person that she really works for is herself. My mentor won't fail us," he replied. "Now do you have any idea where Wuya is?"

"I think I saw her go out shopping earlier. Something about there not being anymore aloe," Jack said. Jack looked down, a faint smile played across the dark lord's face. If he hadn't spent as much time around Chase as he had, he would have thought of it as an expression of disgust.

"That's wonderful," he snorted, genuinely irritated. "Get down now. I need somebody to do a job for me and you're the only option." Behind his goggles, Jack rolled his eyes. In spite of Chase's success as an evildoer, he still had volumes to learn about modern architecture.

He quickly secured the beam and flew down, hoping that the support would hold until he could come back. He followed Chase to the meditation chamber, and inside the floor was covered by the rubies that Chase had him steal weeks ago in a spiral design.

"Stand over there and press the button when I tell you," the warlock said, striding into the center of the spiral. "Do you think you can handle that?" Jack nodded and went over to the button on the wall.

Chase settled into a lotus position, and after a moment's meditation moved his hand to signal Jack. His finger went to the button, and spires of flame shot up from the rubies. Jack screamed and shrunk back from the fire. When it subsided, Chase stood in the center. Aside from some singed hair he looked as if nothing had happened.

"Those foolish Xiaolin Warriors won't know what hit them," he said, his eyes glowing burning brighter and more dangerous than the flames.

**Review - noun**-** a critical article or report, as in a periodical, on a book, play, recital, or the like; critique; evaluation. See also most beloved thing a writer can get.**


	10. Relic

**Hey guys, got away from everything for long enough to finish another chapter. Thanks for all the reviews, virtual chocolate chip cookies for everyone. This is sort of a long, off topic chapter, but there's a better one coming if you stick with it. For the ponies!  
**

**Disclaimer: I did happen to see an episode of House where he was taking care of Wilson's girlfriend's dog. However, it does not mean that I own Xiaolin Showdown.**

**_Relic_  
**

"It just happ'ned again didn't it?" Clay asked, concern filling his blue eyes. She nodded weakly. Everything had been getting better in the past week, but sometimes even Master Fung's meditation techniques couldn't shut out some of the things she saw.

"Some times I'll think it's over, but then they'll come back and it'll just get worse," she said. "Promise you won't tell Rai about this." She knew that he did something stupid last time. He didn't say anything, but when he left, supposedly to talk to Master Fung, she knew where he was really going. Her suspicions were only confirmed when for the past two weeks, he said that Minerva didn't want him back there.

"Have ya checked any of the scrolls? Maybe one of them could help," he suggested.

"I've done that. Me and Rai checked last week," she said, thinking about the disaster that had been. They could find nothing about her condition in the scrolls and to top it off, a memory of being hunted came into her head.

"Maybe you guys missed something." She had to admit, he had a good point. They left as soon as the memory was over and she hadn't gone back to the library since then. More because she was afraid of burning the place down than anything else. She realized a few days ago that she hadn't ever seen the same thing twice, but over the last two weeks, her powers were getting harder and harder to control and her head aches were getting worse. Probably because of the added mental pressure from the memories.

She kicked a rock into the pond and wished everything would go back to normal. The ripples reminded her of the time when she and Settekh….no, it wasn't her. She clenched her teeth and thought about one time when she and the other warriors got a day off to go to the beach. Even though he was the best swimmer out of all of them, Omi still insisted on wearing water wings for safety's sake. Clay made sand palaces that would have made even the Greeks jealous. Rai flew his kite, she read her book, and they all threw a Frisbee around, almost hitting a beachcomber.

"I keep asking myself, why did this happen?" She said. "At first I thought it was an accident, now I'm not so sure."

"Even if it wasn't, magic can always undo magic. There has to be somethin' in the scrolls," Clay said.

"That's the exact opposite of what Master Fung says," she said. "He keeps telling me to let the magic run its course, and I really don't like that idea." If she never thought that raw meat would be a good idea for dinner again, it would be too soon.

"He's probably just sayin' that so ya don't try to do somethin' you're not ready for and make things worse," he said.

"How could things get worse?" she said. "If I relax for even a moment, I'll fall apart. Without realizing it, I'll start writing in languages that I don't know. I called my computer a "demon box" the other day. I'm loosing who I am and I can't do anything about it."

They were quiet for a long time. Kimiko too angry with herself and Clay not wanting to set her off.

"You sure you don't want to tell Rai about this?" He asked a while later.

"I don't want him to get hurt. He thinks he's indestructible, but I've seen what that woman can do," she said, a little bit of an animalistic growl creeping into her voice.

"He's getting' more worried not knowin' what's goin' on," he said. "It's unfair to Rai not to let him know." He had a point, but she was terrified of seeing the visions in her head come to life.

She wordlessly stood up and began to walk towards the temple. She needed to be alone while she thought about this. However, this was not to be. Raimundo was darting through the corridors, searching for the three of them.

"Dojo says we've got another Wu," he said, sliding to a stop. "You seen Omi or Clay?"

"Clay's by the pond, I've got no idea where Omi is," she said.

"Okay," he looked like he was about to start after the boys when he paused again. "Are you okay?" The one question she'd been dreading.

"I'm fine," she lied, heading out to the courtyard to find Dojo. The little dragon was sneezing and rubbing pink goo onto sores on his nose. "What do we have?"

"I'll let you know as soon as the others get here. I don't think I can explain twice without sneezing my face off," he said. She rolled her eyes and took a few minutes to go to the Vault. When she came back with the Quill, the boys were already waiting for her. She leapt onto Dojo's back, landing between Rai and Omi.

"According to the Scroll of the Shen Gong Wu, we're looking for the Whip of Anubis," Omi said, waiting for the rest of them to indicate comprehension. "It gives the user the power to either temporarily raise the spirits of the dead or bind a soul to the wielder's will. We must not let it fall into the hands of evil." He gestured dramatically towards the horizon as Dojo took off.

The flight was largely uneventful, aside from a very startled flock of geese, but when they touched down in the Egyptian desert, she was already a nervous wreck. This particular area for some reason unnerved her more than anywhere else they had been before.

Raimundo and Clay used their powers to move the sand away in the area that Dojo indicated, and with every grain, her apprehension grew. Everything about this valley seemed wrong. Then the boys managed to remove the last of the debris from a large stone slab.

Suddenly, the entire scene shifted, the boys, Dojo, the desert, everything gone to the darkness.

_She was lying on a cold stone floor, but she had been there for so long that she didn't even notice anymore. She didn't feel anything, not cold, not hunger, not pain, just a sense of indescribable loss. _

_She had lain there for so long that she was too weak to move her head and look away from the same spot on the wall that she had stared at for what could have been an eternity. Too weak to close her eyes and pretend she asleep, would wake up the next morning by his side, and feel his hand in hers. Instead, she stayed where she was, time eating away at her new body. Kept alive only by magic. _

_She cursed at herself for being so stupid, they should have known better than to offend the spirits. The only thing she could do now was watch those final minutes play over and over in her head. "Min?" He said. "Would you mind getting the wineskin from my saddlebag?" _

_She smiled in a rare fit of girlish excitement. "What if while I'm gone a beautiful water spirit rises out of the oasis and takes you away to be her consort? Who would I correct then?" _

_He kissed her shoulder, "If that were to happen, I'll tell her that I know someone who is far more beautiful than she could ever be, and then I'll tell her he married a gangly, sharp-tongued, too clever for her own good, shrew of a woman. She'll see that I'm damaged goods and leave me." She playfully slapped his arm. He only smiled at her in response. "I would love to see you try to replace me as a sennet partner though."_

"_You win far too often for your own good," she said, laying her head on his chest. _

"_And you cheat, so it evens out" he replied, stroking her hair. They hadn't seen the water bubbling madly at the edge of the oasis, they didn't know that there was a vain naiad liqving just below the surface. "Just think, when we return to the capital, you'll be my queen."_

"_I know love," she said, taking his other hand in hers. "After six years of waiting, it's finally ours." They were both quiet for a while, absorbing exactly what it would mean for them to take the throne. _

"_You're far more beautiful than any nymph or spirit in all the world," he whispered, kissing the top of her head. Suddenly, the Oasis exploded into a column of water. At its top was a fair-haired woman with a fish tail and gills. _

"_You dare enter my realm with blood on your hands, and no respect for the spirits?" She spat. The two of them could only look up at her and stare in shock. "You behave as animals, and so you shall become." She started waving her arms in a dance-like manner. "Never seeing, hearing, or knowing the other's presence." Her arms began to glow blue green, she and Settekh began to drift apart. Pulled by an unseen force. "And so it shall be for all eternity." _

_Her limbs started to elongate, a strange prickling sensation began all over her skin, her back was torn apart by pain. She could see him, not even ten strides away undergoing a similar transformation. When everything stopped, she looked up at him one last time. Where her husband once stood, there was now a tawny-gold dragon. His dark brown eyes locked on hers for a moment, fear and panic raging through them. He tried to move his mouth, and hastily managed to say "I love you" one last time before vanishing. _

_She couldn't figure out how to move her new limbs, so she couldn't get to the place where she saw him last, or try to convince the nymph to change her back. She collapsed onto the sand and laid her new head on sharp looking talons, a giant tear rolled down her feathery cheek. _

_She remembered the next few days as a blur, relearning how to stand and walk. Dealing with the idea that she would never see Settekh again. Finally, when she managed to leave the desert, she heard a buzzing in a village that she snuck through for food. Artirik had fallen just as they planned, but no one had been able to locate Settekh to take his place. _

_A few weeks later, she heard two women talking while washing clothes in the Nile. Scouts had found the remains of two royal horses by what was left of their clothes. Everyone assumed the two of them were dead. Because there were no bodies, an empty sarcophagus was laid in an unfinished tomb for a low ranking official. _

_After the funeral, she thought that she would find him again near the tomb. She moved the stone out of the way to escape a dust storm, and hadn't left since then. In the beginning, she would snap up lizards and other small animals that crawled in, but then she began to loose hope. Now she felt mice running over her flank, and with every moment, she doubted more and more that she was even really alive. _

_Suddenly, she saw something move by the entrance. A tall, skinny form. Definitely male. She wanted to call out, but she couldn't get more than a choked squawk out of her dry throat. It didn't matter anyway, when she saw the man's face, it was definitely not Settekh. He had rat like features, a long scar over his eye left eye, and far lighter skin than anyone she had seen before. His clothes looked like they had once belonged to a rich man, but were ill kept. _

_The man held a torch up to better see the contents of the tomb. There wasn't much, very little precious metal or stones. There was enough to pique his interests though. His pale, watery eyes fell on her and instantly his hand went to his knife. He stood motionless for a minute, and then began to move towards her. _

"_Kind of a ratty pelt, but still I think I could get something for it. I doubt any of those fur sellers have seen anything like you before," he said, putting his hand on her wing and looking for a place to make an incision. Her shallow breathing quickened and she tried to move away. She was too weak to make any move against him. _

_ He moved his hand towards her face, she felt cold metal against her neck, and something snapped within her. A surge of adrenaline gave her the strength to jerk herself to her feet for the first time in ages. The man staggered back a few steps, but then lunged for her throat. She brought her beak down on his arm and he yowled in pain. _

_ "Stupid animal," he shrieked, clutching at his arm. She collapsed again, and the man began to advance. Now motivated more by revenge than money. She heard a vase topple behind her, and suddenly the man fell backwards, like a large animal had jumped on his chest. _

_ He hit the ground with a sickening crunch and didn't move again. She used what little strength she had left to push herself away from the body, knocking over some scrolls in the process. She curled up and closed her eyes, eager to shut out the broken, bleeding body. _

_She had only been lying there for a few minutes when she found herself engulfed in warmth and she honestly thought she heard Settekh's voice whispering, "I love you" in her ear. Just like he did that last day. This time, she actually responded, even though she knew nothing would come of it._

"_I love you too. And no matter what happens, I always will," she rasped. She felt the warmth around her shifted and she opened her eyes, half expecting everything to have just been a dream. It wasn't, but she knew he was with her somehow. In that moment, she made up her mind to get out of the tomb._

_It took days to drag herself out and she was exhausted by the end of it. But when the first rays of sunlight touched her pelt, the warm presence that followed her for the last few days disappeared and with it, her last hope for finding Settekh again. _

Kimiko opened her eyes and found herself lying in the sand. Rai was kneeling over her and Clay was standing slightly off to the side. She couldn't see Omi or Dojo anywhere.

"Kim? Are you okay?" Rai asked. She could practically slap him. Did it look like she was okay? Of course not.

"I'm fine," she lied. She mentally kicked herself for not following through with her promise to tell him, but this was too bad to tell him about. She had never passed out from one of the memories before. "It's just the heat."

He looked at her like she had three heads. "If you're fine, why were you whimpering like that?" He asked. "You're not fine." He put his hand on her shoulder and she brushed it away.

"There's nothing wrong," she snapped. He snorted, and she could tell that Clay told him about her problem.

"Fine, then we're going after Omi. Chase and Wuya went down there a few minutes ago and he's going to need some back up," he said.

She pulled herself to her feet, and looked at the stone slab. Suddenly, something in her mind snapped. "I'm not going back down there. Not ever again," she said, her voice a strange contralto. Rai staggered back a few feet, but she didn't care. The stupid boy wouldn't understand anyway.

**Okay. This is over. Next chapter will come much faster. **

**review ** **Part of Speech: ** **_noun _** **Definition: ** **critique; summary ** **Synonyms: ** ** Abstract, analysis, appraisal, article, assessment...other various crap from an online thesaurus.  
**


	11. Paramnesia

**Gaaaahhhhh. I'm so sorry this update took so long. I blame my AP chem and Middle Eastern History teachers for assigning papers on the same day. Anywho, thanks to all reviewers who took their time to sing my praises. This was probably the most fun/hardest chapter to write. Chase and Omi's battles give me wonderful excuses to reference whatever I want and this entire god awful mess is starting to make the sense. So, without further adeu...A disclaimer.**

**Disclaimer: This writing and just about everything in it is, until House gets a puppy, not owned by me. Despite my efforts, I am making no money from this and XP to anyone who thinks that I am. **

**_Paramnesia_  
**

A bolt of amber light flew by his head, if Omi had been only a fraction of a second slower in ducking, it would have hit him. He could not recall Chase ever using these sorts of powers before. Another bolt flew at him and the small boy jumped behind a fountain for protection.

He didn't dare peek around the corner, but he knew the warlock wasn't in any hurry to flush him out. That was fine by him. He had trained to sit still for hours in the pouring rain and he had learned endless patience from teaching his friends the way of the Xiaolin monk. And putting up with their music.

Omi was hard pressed to find anything about this showdown that could be used to his advantage. Even though for the first time Chase had allowed Shen Gong Wu to be used, Chase was moving far too fast to be hit with the Silk Spitter. Far faster than he had ever seen the Heylin sorcerer move before.

He glanced around the temple, looking for something that he could use, but the sand colored stone gave little in the way of protection or offensive positions. And he knew if he moved to another position, Chase would hit him with one of those fireballs and the sparring match would be over.

The sound of his furiously beating heart was the only thing he could hear over the occasional tap of the warlord's heavy boots and the bubbling of the fountain. He wondered if the water in the fountain would be receptive to his powers. He had never tried controlling the water in a showdown before, but he always assumed it was forbidden under some obscure appendix of the rulebook. Even if it was, he had no other options and he couldn't afford to loose this Shen Gong Wu.

Omi focused his chi for a moment, and then levitated a small amount of water out of the fountain. He was shocked to discover that it was almost easier than working with regular water. Of course, it would be easy for him. He was the chosen one.

He got just enough for what he had in mind. He froze most of the water and used the remainder to polish the surface until it reflected the entire courtyard. _Careful now. Focus, this must be perfect,_ he thought, pointing the Silk Spitter at a wall. This was his only shot.

"Silk Spitter," he whispered, the web bounced off the wall and hit the warlord before he noticed what was going on. Omi flipped over the fountain and landed by Chase's head.

"You think you have won this young monk?" He said, laughing slightly.

"Why yes. I won in a style most resembling the Odyssey or the Iliad*****," he said. For some reason, as Omi removed the Mantis Flip Coin from his hand, Chase looked slightly confused.

Omi was just about to land the finishing blow, when the web began to smoke. Within moments, the entire thing had turned to ash. Chase leapt to his feet and retreated to the other side of the courtyard.

The two warriors circled each other for a while, then Chase decided to go on the offensive.

"Snake cooking with ginger root," he shouted, executing a highly advanced attack.

"Bear stealing picnic basket," he said, countering.

"Giraffe playing snooker," Chase said, striking at his legs.

"Cricket figure skating," Omi said, jumping the strike.

"Horse jumping stream."

"Cat shopping on clearance."

"Bronx fury."

"Repulse the furry."

"Shark changing light bulb."

"Llama wearing hat." Omi was beginning to beat him back. His extra training was paying off. Chase wouldn't be able to put his most devious scheme into play. The Whip of Anubis would be theirs.

"Griffin racing Phoenix," the warlord jumped up and when Omi looked up, he was gone. The dragon of water kept rotating, so as not to be surprised by a strike from any direction. Where could he have gone? Chase was too tall to hide behind the fountain and there was nowhere else in the courtyard he could hide.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his back. The young monk stumbled forwards a few steps, then whipped around to face the Heylin sorcerer.

"Never forget young monk, I've had well over a thousand years to hone my skills. You don't stand a chance," he sneered.

"I do too stand a chance. In fact, I have the tallest chance out of all the warriors in this showdown," he snarled.

"On the contrary. Your chance is tiny, petite, diminutive, dare I say it, short," he said, with every word he moved to a different position. Omi was used to this sort of mental warfare, but that didn't mean that it was any less infuriating. Chase didn't know what he was getting into.

"Wudai Neptune, Water," he said, using the water from the fountain to hit the sorcerer in the back. He fell forwards, and tried to rise again, but the water pressure was too much. The courtyard shrank back into a dark, stuffy, cold, tomb.

"Congrats kid. I've never seen a repulse the furry pulled off without screwing the rules," Dojo said, slithering over to him. "Let's get out of here. We need to see if Kimiko's okay."

Chase seethed with anger on the other side of the tomb, Wuya on the other hand, looked calmer than he had ever seen her. Omi picked up the Shen Gong Wu and backed out of the chamber, unwilling to turn his back on the Heylin duo. Then it happened.

Wuya kicked over the torch that they were using for light. Chase made a gesture with his hand that made the fire fly at the two of them. Omi had to drop the Wu to put up a water shield that would keep them from being fried. Before he could drop the shield, Chase had grabbed the Whip of Anubis and pushed the Xiaolin monk and the dragon to the side of the hallway as he ran out. Wuya followed close behind.

Omi tried to keep up with them, but without a light, he kept bumping into walls. When he finally reached sunlight, he was just in time to Chase drawing his arm back with the Whip in hand. The silver energy sent forwards by the Whip engulfed Kimiko and before anyone could do anything, Wuya grabbed her and the three of them vanished like smoke in the wind.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

He couldn't believe it. He let her get hurt again. Chase could be torturing her in some dungeon right now and he wouldn't be able to do anything about it. He collapsed into the sand, tears pricking at his eyes.

The others were in a similar state of shock. Omi's jaw hung open, the normally talkative monk unnaturally quiet. Clay's hat fell off his head, but the cowboy made no motion to retrieve it.

They stayed like this, absolutely motionless, for a while. Surprisingly, it was Raimundo that broke the silence. "We're not going to help her standing here," he said, standing and wiping his face on his shirtsleeve.

"You are right my friend. We must return to the temple to plan our next move," Omi said, putting a hand on his shoulder and guiding him back to Dojo. He sat numbly on the dragon's back while the other three talked about what they were going to do next.

He barely noticed it when they landed back at the temple hours later and he walked back to his room as if he was on autopilot. For a while, he sat on his mat, bouncing his soccer ball off the door. It was mindless, purely physical. Throw, bounce, catch, repeat. He could have done it for hours.

He was furious with himself for getting mad at her. He understood why she didn't tell him about how bad her flashbacks were. He already messed up his training and risked his life by going after Minerva. Even though none of them knew about that, he could tell that his explanations for why he couldn't go train with her were becoming suspicious.

There was a knock on the door, he quietly told whoever it was to come in and caught the ball one last time. He wasn't prepared for who was on the other side of the door. A taloned claw stepped hesitantly through the door.

"I heard about the mistress of fire," the griffin said, standing awkwardly in the doorframe.

"What's it to you?" He shot back. Knowing her, she probably masterminded the whole thing.

"I know what it feels like to have the one you love torn from you," she said. She was just using words to make him feel like she was on his side. She worked with Chase. Hell for the right price she'd work with that looser Jack.

"If you really cared, you'd never have given her those memories," he snapped. "You're probably in on all of this."

"I'm not going to lie to you. I knew what Chase was planning. I played my part. I did a favor for an old friend in exchange for information. I'm not ashamed of any of it," she said. It was probably about as close to an admission of guilt as he was ever going to get. The bitch wasn't going to get any sympathy from him. "It would have been worse for her if I hadn't gotten involved."

"Don't try to play the sympathy card Tweety. You did what you did for yourself, not for her." He wasn't going to fight her this time. He was too exhausted mentally and physically to win.

"I'm not trying anything. I truly want to help you get her back," she said. He didn't trust her at all, but her eyes showed rare genuine honesty. "I swear on my honor as a sorceress and a griffin."

"It's not enough. You're just going to betray us the second he gives you an offer," he shot back.

"For once, no. For the next few days, Chase is going to be highly mentally unstable. He probably won't remember any of this until his plan's complete," she said. "And I don't work with crazy people."

"Fine. If you want to help, go and research with the others," he spat. Raimundo didn't want her here at all, but she could be useful.

"Fine, and you're coming with me. I know what it's like to be alone for too long with your thoughts and you wouldn't be able to take it," she said, gesturing for him to follow as she backed out of the room. He stood up and, still quietly fuming, followed her towards the library.

They didn't get far however. Clay, Dojo, and Omi came careening around a corner looking for him. All three of them looked surprised to see Minerva standing in front of him.

"Raimundo partner, we need to rescue Kimiko right now," Clay said.

"Chase Young is planning on taking her powers during the Time of the Lion which is in four days," Omi said, gesturing wildly. He looked to the griffin for conformation of this. She nodded nonchalantly.

"Chase was the dragon of fire. He had to give up his powers to join the Heylin side via the Soup, but as it was not his choice to give his powers up, some part of them remained dormant in him until now," she started to explain. "During the Time of the Lion, powers can leave their hosts and take a new one, but only if given willingly."

"Kim would never do that," he said.

"Not if she was in control of her mind. However, due to certain outside influences, her mind would be too broken to fight the powers of the Whip. If Chase told her to recite Shakespeare backwards in Estonian, she'd do it," she paused for a few seconds to let her words sink in. "If Chase is successful in his plan, he'll have the powers of two fire dragons. He'll be unstoppable."

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

"Why can't I do it now? I was so close during that damn Showdown," Master raged. He paced back and forth in the circular entry hall, smoke flowing from his mouth. She felt like she knew how to do what he was trying to do, but the feeling passed. If Master wanted to do something, Master would figure out how. He was Master after all.

"Control is one thing, creation is another entirely," the witch said, sitting on a ledge. She would have leapt to his defense if he hadn't ordered her to stay still. Criticism of Master was intolerable. He made the pictures of the bird-cat go away. He quieted the storm of thoughts that raged against his control.

"You're not helping. I can't concentrate with your idle chitchat," he snapped. Finally, the witch would get what was coming to her for disrespecting Master.

"You just told me to stay here, something about how you didn't want me to put a knife in your back when you weren't looking," she said, rolling her eyes. She added, too softly for Master, who was still distracted by his work, to hear: "I'd never do that."

"How am I supposed to trust you when every time I turn around you're stealing my Shen Gong Wu or teaming up with that pitiful excuse for a soup ingredient?" He yelled, a small flame erupting from his left palm. Master stopped his raging and stared at it as if the little fire was the only thing in the world.

"Wuya?" He asked in stunned disbelief. "Do you see this?" The witch nodded and stared too. Both of them mesmerized by the dancing flames. For a moment, she saw an image of herself and a green-eyed boy toasting white, gooey things from a flame on her finger, but as quickly as the thought came, it was forgotten.

***Omi to English translation: Epic win. **

**Yet another chapter finished. I'm almost going to be sad when I'm done with this. Either way, I promise the next chapter will be up some time around Christmas.  
**

**So...What'd you think? Everyone who reviews gets to be Chase's master for the day...Why yes. I am drop dead serious.  
**


	12. Incantation

**Hey everybody. Happy Christmahanzawanasticing Festitheifmas Deve. That's Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, Boxing day, Festivus (for the rest of us), Thiefmas (Yes. I've seen people celebrate this), and New Years all rolled into one. So another month, another chapter up, I hope all you reviewers had fun with your erm...gift. With my obligatory Yugioh abridged/Llamas with Hats references out of the way, we're all set to get serious. Or at least as serious as I can ever get. **

**Disclaimer: Said Sue Sylvester to Dr. House: "I will go down to the animal shelter and get you a puppy. You will learn to love that puppy and then one day in the middle of the night I will steal away in to your house and punch you in the face." Sadly, this was just in my head. Dr. House was not given a puppy by Sue Sylvester. I still own nothing.**

**_Incantation_  
**

"Dodge left. Right. Watch your footwork. Too slow. How long do you think you'll last against Chase fighting like that?" Minerva said, darting around the boys. The three of them had endured her combat training for the last three hours, but to no results.

"We would last longer if you would teach us rather than attack our gray matter in the courtyard*****," Omi said, ducking an open palmed strike.

"Fine. If you want a break, take five and get some water, but remember, Chase isn't going to give back your friend without a fight," she said, standing in the middle of the training area, examining her cerulean nails.

Raimundo couldn't make himself take her up on the offer. Instead, he continued to attack a training dummy.

"Boy, you should go with them. You need a break too," she said, glaring at him.

"How come you never let me do that when I was your apprentice?" He asked, still showing no mercy to the straw dummy.

"Because then you weren't willing to try. You're still not quite where I want the three of you to be, but we've got another three days. We can't go for Chase before then because he won't hesitate to destroy her," she said, running a hand through her newly cut hair.

He almost didn't recognize her when she turned back into a human earlier. Her hair, which had previously fallen in a tangle half way down her back, was cut to about an inch below her shoulders and layered dramatically. She discarded the monks robe for a pair of black yoga pants and a similarly colored athletic top. If not for the fact that he knew Minerva was a rather crazy, immortal, shape shifter, he could have mistaken her for a normal human.

"I hate not being able to do anything. She's being tortured and I'm here because of what you tell us. You're probably still lying to us," he shot back, still fiercely attacking the straw man.

"He can do as he likes with her and she'll view it as a reward, besides Chase isn't into torture. There are better ways to break someone. She's not in pain if it's any consolation," she said, still like someone discussing the weather.

"How can you be sure?" He said, calming down a little.

"Dashi wouldn't let us use the Whip unless we had been under its control. I think he made me dance around the courtyard with the Monkey Staff." He couldn't help but crack a smile at the idea of the normally dignified woman doing something so out of character. "Don't you dare laugh. Chase still hasn't let me live that one down."

He went back to his solemn expression, worn out by his angry outburst at the straw man. Taking the break would be giving in to her, but he was exhausted. This time, he wasn't going to give in. Training was too important now.

"Teach me how to beat Chase," he said, quiet but intense.

"What?" Almost like the sorceress was shocked.

"You heard me. Teach me how to beat Chase. I can't keep up with him, even when I was training with you," He said.

"I can only help you so much. I didn't even teach Chase everything I know, and you're not ready to learn yet," she said, running her hand through her hair and pausing for a few moments to think. "I can teach you two things though. First, Chase has a weakness. You'll be hard pressed to attack it, but take it out of the equation and he'll fall apart."

"What is it?" He asked. The dark haired woman snorted.

"You already know," she said. He clenched his teeth, but didn't loose his cool. The others trusted her, and he was willing to do anything to save Kimiko. Even sucking up to a lunatic.

"Just what we need. Another Master Fung," he said.

"If we had another Fung, the forces of evil would be quaking in their oddly comfy boots," she said. "Now, on to the second matter. Get the other two Dragons." She flicked her head towards the temple.

He did as she told and got Clay and Omi from the kitchen. When they got back outside, Minerva was drawing a circle on the ground in black ink. Then a second circle concentric circle around that. In the space between them, she painted archaic symbols in alternating silver and dark blue ink.

"Don't just stand there," she said, not looking up from her work. "Fetch me a piece of obsidian, a reed flute, a white lotus, and a maple branch. Preferably with leaves." He sighed and thought that he should have expected something like this. The three of them split up again to get the things the sorceress asked for.

A few minutes they were back with the items. She took them without speaking and handed the branch to Clay, the lotus to Omi, the flute to him, and placed the little black rock in the middle of the circle. She moved them around the circle until the three of them stood equidistant from each other.

"Play the flute, wave the branch around, and cheeseball, you turn in a circle," she said, and began chanting. At first, he could only get a harsh, off-key note from the flute, but suddenly, his fingers started to move of their own accord. The little instrument began to produce a quick, lively melody. He looked around at the other dragons, Omi was performing an intricate dance, and Clay moved the branch in a complicated pattern.

Three beams of light flew from their objects to the volcanic rock. For a second, it absorbed the light, then it spilled from the rock and formed green, blue, and silver swirling designs within the circle. When it was finished, a bolt of crimson shot from the stone to the sky. The color drained from the designs and wound around the red column.

For a second, he blacked out. Then somehow, he was watching Chase with a small flame in his hand, but it was hazy, like watching through a fine mist. He thought he heard Kimiko's voice hiss: "Get out of my head," before coming back to the courtyard.

The lights had faded, but the symbols remained burned into the stones. Minerva stood with her hands on her knees and breathing heavily.

"Are you alright ma'm?" Clay asked. She didn't answer for a few minutes, trying to regain her strength.

"I'll be fine, it just takes a lot out of a sorceress to cast a spell like that. You owe me boys," she panted. "I used your chi to weaken Chase's control over her. Anubis, it's been almost fifteen hundred years since I've done that."

"We should call it a day," Rai said. He wasn't going to force her into training them if she wasn't up to it.

"Master Fung will pick up your training tomorrow," she said, shifting to her other form. "For the time being, scrub this off the ground. I'm sure some of the monks will be notably displeased at me vandalizing their courtyard." With this, the sorceress walked tiredly towards the meditation chamber.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

She couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. Over the last three days, Master had faded from her thoughts occasionally only to be replaced by people who she had never seen before. A short bald boy, another boy in a periodically destroyed hat, an old man, and the green-eyed boy. This shouldn't be happening. Master was the most important thing in the world.

If not for Master, she wouldn't exist. Master was everything. She was on her way to get Master in order for him to fix her problem, when she saw Master and the Witch standing in the entry hall. They were talking about something. She could sort of make it out.

"If it doesn't take, it will slowly burn me away from the inside out," Master said.

"I can make sure that it will work. The world will me mi-er, ours," the Witch said. In her opinion, the red head didn't deserve any part of the world, no matter how small.

"I know, but if it doesn't, take this. It'll be much faster and cleaner," Master said, handing her a long, thin, black bladed, knife. "I'll be wanting it back when I'm done with this so don't think you can just assassinate me once I've taken over the world."

"Don't point that thing at me. You should know that just a knick from a necreterna blade is enough to kill an immortal," she hissed, shrinking back a little from the dagger in Master's hand. Instead of sticking the Witch with it like she wanted, Master flipped it over, his own hands protected by armored gloves, and she took it. The Witch summoned a leather sheath and nervously tied the knife at her waist.

"It's almost time," Master said, running a hand through his hair. She could tell he was still worried about his plan. He shouldn't have been. He was Master after all.

For a moment, both of them were quiet. Then he tentatively took the Witch in his arms and held her for a while. She was confused as to why Master was holding her the way he was. The Witch was annoying, scheming, and disloyal.

"We should go and find the girl," the Witch said after what seemed like forever.

"I suppose we should," he said as they separated. She ran back to her room, it would displease Master if he found out that she hadn't obeyed him. He normally left the door unlocked because she would never want to leave, but for some reason, today she did.

"There's something I wish to discuss with you," he said, opening her door. "I need something important from you, but you need to do exactly as I say for you to give it to me." She nodded and answered in the affirmative. Saying no to master was…unimaginable? For a moment, she considered doing the unthinkable.

"Good. Come with me." Master led her deep into the citadel to a room where the floor was covered with rubies. The Witch was standing by a lever on the side of the room.

"Kimiko Tohomiko, Mistress of Fire, do you swear that you are giving up your powers willingly?" She said yes and he led her to a small area by the Witch.

Master went into the center of the spiral and hovered in a lotus position. Master and the Witch chanted in unison. A rich bass and mezzo-soprano blending into one voice. She saw herself begin to glow red along with Master.

Their voices hit their peak, and the Witch threw the lever. Flames shot up around Master. A deep pain began in her chest, like something was being ripped from her. She almost cried out, but Master wouldn't do anything to harm her.

Almost as suddenly as the flames shot up, they subsided. The red glow around her faded, but the one around Master glowed ten times as bright. Master threw back his head, fire shot from his mouth, and licked at the ceiling.

"The true Master of Fire is back," he laughed. For some reason, she shuddered, and for some reason, she wished she had a weapon. That feeling passed however, and she was left only to revel in Master's glory.

***Omi to English: Beat our brains out. **

**Okay, dark magic rituals command you to review...Ah screw this. Imperio. All of you will now review for me. Pretty Please? :-)**


	13. Harmonization

**Hi Everybody! Between basketball practice and AP essays, I think this might be my fastest update ever. It's rather cheesy, but I'm proud of it. Thank you to everyone who took time out of their holidays to review, favorite, or set an alert. **

**Disclaimer: The dog days are over. The dog days are done. I've run out of ways to say that until Dr. House gets a puppy I don't own anything, so I'm going to be boring about it. I am making no money from this. **

**_Harmonization _  
**

"Take anything that's not magic from the left side," Minerva said, leading them into the armory. The senior monks had decided that it would be too much of a risk to send them against a potentially super powered Chase with Shen Gong Wu, so they had to make do with normal weapons and their own skills.

"How do we know if it is magical?" Omi asked, examining a pile of spears. Raimundo mentally thanked the small boy. Just because he scrubbed them didn't mean he knew what was what.

"Hold this up to it," she said, throwing him what looked to be a bronze tuning fork. Omi held it up to a blue stone staff and it began to vibrate intensely. He grinned and started to look for an acceptable weapon.

Raimundo proceeded to do the same. After stealing the magic detector from Omi a fair few times, he came upon a dark steel scimitar. He remembered dusting this one. The red tassel on the hilt was hopelessly tangled, but he still had to undo it. The weight felt good in his hand, the edge was deathly sharp, about the best thing he was going to find given his options.

He still looked around, partially waiting for the others to pick, partially worrying about Chase. If he already took Kimiko's powers, he was going to be hell to beat. It would also make it all the more difficult to break his hold over her. No matter what else this mission was supposed to accomplish, getting her back was the most important goal.

"Boy, the others have picked. Hurry up," Minerva snapped. He couldn't help but notice she still sounded tired. The day after the ritual, she hadn't woken up until almost sundown. Even then, she hadn't done much. Just watched their afternoon training and threw out the occasional halfhearted criticism. The next day wasn't much better. The tall woman supervised them attacking dummies and could barely keep up on the run.

"Yeah, I'm good." He jogged over to them and saw that Clay had picked a pair of throwing knives that could also double as daggers if need be, and Omi selected a spear with a forked iron tip.

"Alright kids, we don't have much time," Dojo said, slithering into the room. The three of them nodded in unison, followed the dragon to the ledge, and hopped on his back. Nobody said much on the way to the Land of Nowhere, but he could tell that everyone was nervous about what was coming next.

The fires outside the lair weren't burning like usual. He could only hope that was a good sign. His brain told him no as the air was unnaturally dry and hot. Almost volcanic. Omi, Clay, and Minerva all darted off towards the door and hid behind a rock. He started to follow, but Dojo held him back for a second.

"Raimundo buddy, you understand that you'll be fighting Kimiko in there right?" He said. He hoped this wouldn't come up.

"Yeah. I'm going after Chase though. Remember?" They had discussed their positions in the strike. It was universally agreed upon that Raimundo not go after Kimiko.

"But still. Don't stop Clay from doing what he has to," the little dragon said. "And just as a warning, keep an eye on Min. I know that she's fighting for us, but Chase was like a son to her. If she turns, back her into a corner, preferably under a ledge and don't hesitate to take her out." He nodded and they went to where the others were kneeling.

Omi signaled for them to move forwards upon seeing no guards. Having been there so many times before, they knew the combination for the lock in the door perfectly. The round headed monk struck the onyx stones on the door in sequence and the door swung open. For once, the stone slab didn't almost crush them.

The entry hall looked to be empty, but he knew that nothing in this cave was what it appeared to be. Suddenly, but not unexpectedly, the door swung shut and jungle cats poured from behind the columns.

"I knew it. Your master's too cowardly to fight us in the open," He sneered as the four of them turned their backs to each other so as not to be attacked from the back. The cats kept advancing.

"Master is not a coward," said a familiar voice. His eyes shot to the top of the stairs and Kimiko stood silhouetted in firelight, wearing armor eerily similar to that of a certain Heylin sorcerer.

"Kimiko?" He whispered, not believing the sight. She didn't respond and instead leapt down the entire flight of stairs at once. She landed catlike before them stood shock still, as if thinking about what she was about to do. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but he thought he saw a flicker of recognition in her eyes.

"What are you waiting for?" Chase said from somewhere above them. "Destroy them." She hesitated no longer and lunged for them. The group rotated so that she would be going up against Clay rather than him. The cats jumped with her and within seconds, their objectives were forgotten in the fight to stay alive.

He soon found that it wasn't worth the effort it took to try to keep the group in formation. He motioned to them to split up and they did so without any hesitation. He clubbed a lion on the head with the hilt of his sword and it went down. For a second, he could look for Chase.

The sorcerer was battling Minerva, and watching them was almost like watching someone fighting in a mirror. Chase definitely had the advantage though.

Raimundo didn't have much time to think about this as Clay went flying by him, knocking over at least three jungle cats, and stopped motionless by the wall. Kimiko advanced towards him and he reluctantly got into a defensive stance. It wasn't breaking up the plan if he was filling in for Clay.

"Kim, I really don't want to do this," he said. She didn't respond. Just kept coming towards him. "Please? Don't you remember us?" She lunged and struck a stinging blow to his face. The hot metal of the gloves burning a tattoo into his flesh.

He pushed her away, but she struck again. Instinctively, he caught her hand and twisted it behind her back. "Come on. You know who we are. The cheese ball's Omi. He's a prick, but he'll stand by you to the end." She broke free of his hold and sweep kicked his feet. He landed on his back, but didn't give up. "Clay's the one you just sent into next week. He comes off as slow, but he understands things like no one else."

"Stop talking to her boy," Minerva squawked from somewhere behind him. "She's not Kimiko anymore."

_Yes she is, _he thought. He saw it when she hesitated to attack him. He heard it when they bonded their Chi. He knew she was still in there. He just had to bring her out. She hit him in the stomach and he doubled over. He realized that it would probably only make things worse to go easy on her, but he couldn't hurt her.

"Alright. No more Mr. Nice Monk," he said, dragging himself to his feet. Frustrate her. Make her angry. Anything to break Chase's control. She lunged again, but he dodged and used his wind powers to push her into a group of Aztec warriors. She caught herself and came back for another attack.

"Is that all you got?" He smirked, dodging each punch thrown at him. "I've seen little old ladies hit harder than that." It wasn't entirely a lie if you considered Minerva and Wuya as old.

She didn't respond and instead shifted her attack to nerve strikes. "Oh shit," he said, barely getting out of the way of what could have left him paralyzed for hours. "Shoku Storm, Wind." He used the twin tornados to bring himself to the ceiling and grab hold of a stalactite.

"What ever are you doing up here boy?" said a voice from behind him. He turned his head to see Chase. The sorcerer was in his dragon form, with new black and green veined wings stretching from his back. "Couldn't take the heat?" With this, he spat fire at Raimundo, forcing him to let go of the rock.

He used his powers to stop himself from falling, just inches over a sparring Minerva and Wuya's heads. He flew over to Omi, who was barely holding his own against Kimiko and the jungle cats.

"Need help?" Instead of waiting for a response, he sweep kicked a mace-wielding knight.

"Help would be most welcome," the little monk relied. "I am down to my nose in cat hair." He struck a Viking in the chest with the iron-capped end of his spear.

"Up to my ears," he said, dodging an attack from Kimiko.

"That too." He would have rolled his eyes if not for the fact that he barely got out of the way of an incoming fireball.

"Is that the best your "Master" can do?" He laughed, trying not to show how nervous he really was. She snarled in anger and lashed out at him.

"Don't ever disrespect Master," she snarled, throwing a punch at his face. He dropped his sword to catch her hand. Only instead of using her attack against her, he held her hand.

"Chase isn't your master. I know you can hear me Kim. We're your friends, we're trying to help," he pleaded. For a split second, he knew that Chase's hold was weakening.

Her attacks slowed as she became less sure of herself. It wasn't enough though. He still wasn't fighting Kimiko. She looked like her and sort of fought like her, but she was still one of Chase's minions.

"I'm not going to leave here without you. The real you," he said. "This isn't you. You're funny, sweet, and more stubborn than your average mule. You're the smartest, most independent person I've ever met. Our team's not complete without you. I've been going crazy without you. I even washed the dishes the other day. Without being asked." She made a noise that he could have mistaken for a laugh, but kept on attacking.

He realized long ago that their battle plan had failed and they wouldn't be able to take down Chase, but they could still rescue Kimiko. He gave her a perfect opening for one of her flip moves, and she took it. Her foot made contact with his shoulder, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to take much more of this, but at least she was fighting like she used to. Up until now, her style was far too close to Chase's for his comfort.

"Ai girl. You've still got it," he said, back handing a leopard. "I bet your weakling master couldn't measure up to me." He flipped away from her, trying to draw her away from the fray. He could fight better in open ground.

"You will pay for your disrespect of Master," she followed just as swiftly.

"Hey, facts are facts. Your master is a certified Loony Toon," he said, shrugging and dodging her attack. She was absolutely furious. He would have to keep destabilizing her to stand a chance of breaking through.

"It's not that you're not amazing. You just wound up on the wrong side. Now, if you were on our side, we wouldn't be having this problem." He folded his hands behind his back and side stepped her. She stumbled and landed on her hands and knees. She didn't get up this time.

"Let me help you up." He extended his hand to her. She didn't take it. Just stayed motionless. He knelt down to her level and looked her in the eye. She wasn't Kimiko, but not the same girl who attacked them earlier. "I know you think you don't know me, but you do. I used to pull pranks on you all the time. It drove you nuts when I would take your phone and hide it in a wall. We could talk for hours about absolutely nothing. We both think the movie "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" is good if you spend the entire time making fun of it."

He took one of her hands in his and kept talking. "You'd never admit it, but you love it when I pull your pigtails. Last year we used our powers to make the best fireworks ever. I'm never going to forget that night on the roof. Before everything got messed up," he said. He could see the conflict in her face. Torn between her old life and servitude to Chase, she looked away from him. "I know you remember me. I know you remember how much I care about you."

He let go of her hand, she didn't move away. He cupped her face in his hands and after a moment's hesitation, he kissed her. It was quick and chaste, closemouthed, but it still felt perfect. He drew away after a second, and she did the same. He winced in preparation for a blow that he knew was coming.

"Rai?" She asked. Her voice was so quiet, he was half-sure he was imagining it. "What's going on? What am I wearing?" He looked at her and she was back to being Kimiko again. He didn't respond and threw his arms around her.

"I thought I lost you," he said.

"Rai, I'm fine. It's just like any other memory. You should be worried about Omi. It's him against Chase and Wuya in that tomb," she said.

"You really have no idea what's going on?" He asked. He wasn't going to get an answer though. A primal roar came from the center of the entry hall. They turned to look and saw Chase levitating ten feet over the rest of the warriors, glaring at the two of them. His eyes glowed bright red and smoke flowed from his mouth.

"Dark Phoenix, Fire," He shouted and his entire body glowed red. Black flames leapt from his body and formed into a giant bird. Minerva screamed to retreat before she and Omi grabbed Clay's unconscious form and started for the stairs.

He and Kimiko looked at each other for a second, confused that they would run away from the door. They still followed though. Raimundo was sure that Minerva was leading them into a trap and kept waiting until they came to a place like the one Dojo described to confront her. She didn't stop in the tunnels for long enough though. Eventually, they came to a dead end, Raimundo half fell into a defensive stance. Instead of attacking though, she muttered something under her breath and the rock wall fell away.

"What are you waiting for? They'll be here any second. Get the hell through that door," she shouted. Raimundo took her place carrying Clay and the four monks went through the door, only to have the floor drop away a few feet later.

They fell for what felt like forever, but finally came out just outside the main entrance where Dojo was waiting. The three of them leapt on and pulled Clay up with them. Minerva came out the shoot a few moments later, shifted into her animal form mid fall, and flew off towards the Xiaolin Temple. Just as Dojo took off, the door swung open and Chase stepped out. He sent a blast of fire after them, and it was all Omi could do to keep them from being fried.

_**X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X**_

"I can't believe it!" Chase said, pacing back and forth in the entryway. "Betrayed by my own mentor. No wait. I can believe it. She'd sell her own mother to get what she wants." His cats slunk back from him, but he didn't notice.

"Chase, be reasonable. What could the monks possibly offer her?" Wuya asked, she doubted she could reason with the warlock in this sort of state, but it was worth a shot. Chase normally reacted well to reason. Although Chase wasn't normally this worked up about anything.

"The girl has remarkable magical potential. Minerva could use her like she did me to try to track Settekh," he said. This sounded like a reasonable theory, except for that she had obviously failed with Chase and if anything, that old bird learned from her mistakes.

"Calm down. So you don't have the girl. You've still got her powers. That's what's really important," she reminded him. He turned on her, his eyes glowing bright gold.

"Did you ever think that they could use the same ritual?" He said, his voice dangerously quiet. He grabbed her arm and she gasped in pain. Suddenly, his gaze softened, he dropped her arm, and backed away a little.

"Are you alright?" He asked, his eyes really saying, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's nothing. I underestimated the sorceress, that's all," she said, showing him the torn fabric on the dress where a spell caught her. It was no big deal really, especially considering that she was relatively sure she caught the shapeshifter with the knife. She wasn't about to tell Chase that though. For all his screaming and raging, he was still her apprentice.

"Here, let me see it." He took her arm again, very gently this time, and ran his other hand over it. The wound burned for a second, and despite its magical origins, healed.

**Thanks for reading. I am rather proud of the end of this chapter. I've only got four or five chapters left so...when this is all said and done, how about a sequel? I'll never know until you review. **


	14. Elementalist

**Hey. So two days of continuous snow helped me get around my writers block. Unfortunately, I'm also going nuts stuck in my house. I apologize for posting inferior work whilst angry at my writers block. So thank you for reviewing, virtual pie and all that jazz. Yes I am a bit of a Chuya fan. No, it's not sad that reading this was a highlight of winter break. And an explanation for all of ch. 6 is that I can't write a scene where two characters get together for the life of me. And now for something totally different (and unlike the last chapter not Backstreet Boys and Nsync fueled)...**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Xiaolin Showdown I wouldn't be writing fanfiction. There'd be a fourth season where Chase spent copious amounts of time shirtless.**

**_Elementalist_  
**

"Help me get this off," she said, frantically scratching at the buckles on the armor. Raimundo looked at her and shook his head, the burn on his face still a fierce reminder of the last time he touched it.

"Only you can touch it girl. The enchantments aren't set yet," Minerva said, lounging on an infirmary cot with her forelegs crossed. "Don't know why you'd want to get rid of it. That armor's been forged in dragon fire. Bloody hard to get a hold of and magnifies magic tenfold."

"I don't care. Get. It. Off. Me." she said, tugging at a strap. It was given to her by Chase Young. It couldn't be good to wear it.

"Fine. If you don't want it, I'll take the gloves. Do you have any idea what it's like getting scratched behind the ears by dragon fire gloves?" The griffin said.

"Yes. It is quite pleasant," Omi said, reminiscing on his days as a cat. "But we have stinkier kettles of worms to sauté. Like getting Kimiko's powers back from Chase Young."

"If we're going to have a shot at that, we're going to have to throw everything we've got at him," Rai said. Kimiko could only take his word for it. She couldn't remember anything between waking up in the desert and coming to in Chase's lair. They told her about what happened, but she figured they played down some parts.

"He was the dragon of fire. We only have three and a half years of training. What do we have that he doesn't?" She asked, going behind a partition to take off the leggings and top.

"He has a weakness. I just can't figure it out." She heard Rai pacing the infirmary.

"Strength ain't everythin' Rai," Clay said. He came to about twenty minutes ago. She couldn't believe that she knocked him out without batting an eyelash. "I reckon we can outthink the varmint."

"You didn't see what he did. There wasn't anything we could do against him. We need his weakness," he said, giving an accusatory glare at the griffin.

"We can defeat him without knowing it," Omi said. "We are Xiaolin monks. When the four of us stand together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish."

"That's great Omi. If we're in a hallmark card," Raimundo said. "You saw what he did. That Dark Phoenix move was way more powerful than anything we've seen before."

"That's only the beginning if you don't started," Minerva said. "He has powers you and I could only imagine. Just think. the full strength of two dragons in one body…" Kimiko could see the wheels turning in the griffin's mind. She always did love power. Second only to Settekh. This gave her an idea.

"Can only fire power change hosts right now?" She asked, tying off her robe, lying the armor on a cot, and coming out from behind the wooden screen.

"No. Why do you ask? You can't put more than one element in someone's body if that's what your wondering," she said, shifting back to a human and rummaging through the herbs.

"That's not what I mean. Could you give Raimundo your powers?" She asked. The shapeshifter broke out laughing and almost dropped the bottle she was holding.

"I gave mine up when Dashi imprisoned Wuya. I've got nothing left to give and even if I did, I never said I'd help you defeat Chase," she said, pouring the bottle into a small bowl and adding some odd leaves.

"We both know that you'd never give up power willingly. If you didn't give it up willingly then you still have some powers left," she replied. The woman didn't answer and poured her concoction onto a cut on her arm and bandaged it.

"If that is the case, you have to help us," Omi said. "You were once a Xiaolin Warrior. You may not have your powers anymore, but you still have your honor." Raimundo shot her worried look. She had to agree. The griffin was many things, but honorable wasn't one of them.

"I haven't gotten this far through honor," she said. "I'm not going to help you defeat Chase and that's final." She walked out of the infirmary, leaving the three monks alone.

"No good, double crossing bitch," Rai called after her, drawing the evil eye from the monk mixing up a cough remedy at the other end of the infirmary. "I knew she wouldn't help."

"Maybe I should talk to her. I know her better than you do," she said, putting a hand on his arm. For a second, it looked like he was going to argue, but accepted that the memories gave her an advantage he didn't have.

She found the sorceress running laps around the temple complex. Kimiko motioned for her to come over and she reluctantly did so. "I'm not negotiating this. I'm not going to help you."

"I'm not going to give up on this. I've seen you at your best, I've seen you shivering on floor of a tomb unable to remember your own name," she said, the taller woman snarled at the mention of those dark years. "Settekh told you that you sometimes have to do what's right, even if it's not easy. You can go back to doing whatever it is you do now as soon as this is over, but please. Honor him and help us."

Minerva was quiet, thinking about her prince. He didn't have a much stronger moral compass than she did, but he would always put his people first. Although she had taken lovers since then, Settekh stayed with her for thirty-seven hundred hears. She loved him more than anything else.

"When I complete the ritual, you have to give me an hour before you start after Chase," she said. "And five vials of the essence of horse flower, three black lotuses with exactly thirty petals picked by the light of a full moon, and a bucket of half ripe cherries." Kimiko had no idea where they were going to get all that, but it wouldn't be a problem.

"Yes!" she cheered, half surprised that it actually worked. "I promise you won't regret this." She paused for a moment. "But if you even think about doing to Raimundo what you did to me, you will." In response to this, the old woman smiled. Like an adult indulging a child.

"It's a good thing you didn't live in my time. I would have considered you serious competition for the throne," she said. "Get the boy. And get your armor back on. You'll need it." Kimiko shuddered thinking about it. The armor didn't feel right.

She darted back to the infirmary. Raimundo asked her what she said, but Kimiko thought it best not to tell. She went to the cot to get her armor. The dark bronze colored metal top felt impossibly light in her hands. She shivered as she put it on over her robes, she didn't want it touching her skin.

When she got back to the courtyard, the river stone floor had been transfigured to a group of shimmering white gems. Raimundo fit the Moonstone Locust into an opening in the center.

"Here, read this," the sorceress shoved a piece of parchment at her, almost identical to the one in her other hand. "I don't have my elemental powers, so this won't work, but if it does, I just want you to know I'm not responsible for anything that happens. I've never done this before." Words that sounded all too familiar.

The parchment was covered in phonetic spellings of strange words she was sure she knew from somewhere. She sent Raimundo into the center of the crystalline surface with the Sword of the Storm in hand. Minerva motioned for her to start reading the parchment and began to do so herself. Her voice tripped over the strange words, but soon they almost felt natural. In fact, she could understand them.

They had no translation into English, but rather into a song that existed since long before the first cosmic breezes tickled the fiery earth's new formed atmosphere. A melody formed by the vibration of a thousand orchestras of tiny strings. Joy and rage in one perfect harmony.

Raimundo was borne aloft upon winds summoned by the Sword of the Storm. He and the shapeshifter began to glow silver, but whereas Raimundo's was strong and steady, hers flickered like a dying candle. The flickering, unsteady light gradually condensed itself into a silver ball and buried itself in Raimundo's chest. The two women kept chanting until the glow faded and the wind died down. He drifted down slowly and when he hit the ground, he looked even more energetic and lively than usual.

"This feels amazing," he said, looking at his hands where there was still the faintest hint of the glow. "Forget surfing. This is a way better rush."

"Just don't forget boy. What's the first rule of magic?" Minerva asked, her dismay at the ritual working well veiled behind a mask of neutrality.

"The world cannot be out of balance. For every action, there is an equal counter action. Whatever. Let's go kick some evil butt," he said, bouncing like he just drank a six-pack of red bull.

"Wait an hour boy. The girl promised me an hour," she said. He looked like he was about to protest, but stopped when he saw the expression on Kimiko's face. She touched the Griffin's Wing, hanging by a silver chain on her neck, shifted forms, and flew off.

"What's that about?" He asked, lazily loping over to her.

"Nothing. It just took a lot of promises to get you this power," she replied, hoping that the promises wouldn't be their undoing. To her surprise, he didn't press the issue.

"Let's start planning our attack. Chase won't just wait around," he said, walking, no floating, back to the infirmary. She couldn't help but notice it, but there were little pinpricks of silver in the pupils of his eyes.

_**X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X**_

"Chase?" Jack called, walking into the entryway and seeing a scorched wasteland. The rivers and waterfalls had evaporated, and the stones were blackened by ash. Bits of armor and weaponry that he recognized from the cat warriors lay scattered throughout the hall.

_He is going to be a bitch today,_ the red head thought, recognizing a dent in a helmet as the work of a certain dragon of water. He had removed thousands of similar dents from salvageable Jackbots. _I bet he didn't even use that security tower I installed. _

He halfway didn't want to find the warlock. If the geek squad had been here, Chase would probably torch him for using the wrong hair gel. However, Jack had to tell him about what he found about his "experiment with magic."

He started through the rooms at the top of the steps, most of them empty aside from injured or sleeping cats. He closed the doors quietly, in an attempt not to die a horrific early death. Eventually, he got to one of the meditation chambers. He could hear voices on the other side. Wuya shrieking in fury, Chase sounding frustrated, and another almost bored sounding female voice. Jack edged the door open nervously.

Chase and Wuya were arguing with an olive-skinned woman in dark wash jeans and a light gray polo shirt. She could not have looked more out of place in the lair. "What were you thinking? A rogue elemental is the last thing we need right now!" Chase shouted.

"Chase, you know me far better than that. I don't muck about with spells I've never tried. I didn't even think it would work. The boy just wasn't ready for the power of two dragons. It didn't take. The same thing could have happened to you," she explained, looking supremely uninterested in what was going on. "The fact that you gave her that _thing_," she gestured to a knife on Wuya's hip, "is proof enough of that."

Jack hoped this didn't mean they gave Raimundo powers like Chase had. It was enough of a problem that Chase did it.

"We still have to deal with him. The boy is far cleverer than he appears," Wuya said.

"No matter. He has no magical ability on a good day and no idea what's going on," the black haired woman said, almost a little like she regretted what they were going to do. "We're among the best magic users in the world and besides, we know his weakness." Jack slipped into the room and stood against the wall.

He cleared his throat and the three magicians turned towards him. Green, blue, and amber eyes glared daggers at him.

"Chase, I've got something really important to tell you. Your ritual…" he was suddenly cut off.

"Whatever the reason you're here worm, we may have a use for you," the sorcerer said. "The Xiaolin warriors are on their way. Get some of your useless robots for a temporary defense in the great hall."

"That's not what I'm here for. The Celestial Dragons…This is important," he said, stamping his foot and glaring right back at them.

"So is insuring my victory," he said, dismissively. "Now be a good leach and do as you're told." Jack was furious with himself for doing so, but he backed out of the room and summoned robots to the entry hall.

"Tell me what you know," a voice hissed in his ear. He whipped around to find himself face to face with the bored woman. He shrieked and caused her to jump back. She touched a silver pendant around her neck, almost unconsciously, and shifted momentarily into an animal.

"Don't eat me!" He said. He could practically hear her roll her eyes.

"Jackson Phillip Alexi Brian Spicer," she said. He had no idea how she knew his name and it freaked him out. "It would be in your best interest to tell me everything you know about the Celestial Dragons. Understand?" He was about to tell her to get lost when the air in the entry hall grew still all of a sudden.

Then the doorway blew open and the winds that rushed through were enough to blow both Jack and the dark haired woman all the way to the top of the stairs. Jack looked up at the people in the door. There was something off about the wind dragon. He didn't look in control at all.

**So you put up with this. Not far to go. I'm torn between Dragon Dance and 90's Pop Band Slam as a title for the sequel. No really, the other title is Spirit Song. May change depending on how I feel about it. Review please. :)  
**


	15. Divinity

**Hey everyone! All this snow is making me feel so productive lately. So between cramming for midterms, basketball practice, and shoveling I've managed to write another chapter. So thank you to HealingSpringWaters, NinjaLord, and Spottedwind19 for reviewing. Pancakes for everybody. And now for something totally different...**

**Disclaimer: Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam... Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam! Nobody expected The Spanish Inquisition. However, everyone expects the fanfic author to own nothing. They are correct in this assumption.  
**

**_Divinity_  
**

This was the most incredible thing in the world. Everything was so clear and defined. Every rash scarred scale on Dojo's back, the solar glare off Omi's head, every rock on the ground below, the sound of Clay tapping his fingers on the Fist of Tebigong, a faint whiff of Kimiko's rosewater perfume, the rush of the air over his skin. All of it in sublime clarity.

If this was what Chase felt like now, he was going to be even harder to beat. It was like he was perfectly in sync with the universe. Raimundo didn't want to admit it to himself, but he was reluctant to give this up when everything was over. He could only imagine how hard Chase would fight to keep it.

"Rai, calm down," Kimiko called at him as he executed yet another back flip mid air. She had gotten increasingly edgy after the ritual. He couldn't see a reason for it. The sheer ecstasy of flight was enough to keep him happy.

"Cool it fire girl," he said, nonchalantly floating on his back alongside Dojo. "Just having a bit of fun." She shot him a glare, partly frustrated, but mostly worried.

"You can have fun once we take down Chase Young," she said. He would have laughed, if not for a sudden change in the air. Thin, hot, smelled like ash. He could feel little particles of soot hitting his skin. Filthy, dirty, acrid soot. He couldn't believe anyone would willingly create something this disgusting.

He summoned a strong wind to remove the coating of the vile substance from his body. Dojo had to fight to keep on course. They shouted at him to stop. Couldn't they see what he saw? Didn't they feel it?

He quieted the wind, but made up his mind to wash vigorously as soon as they got back to the temple. The coating got thicker and more repellent by the second. He was almost grateful when they got to Chase's lair. It meant this would be over sooner.

Omi tried the combination, but there was no response from the door. They tried their Shen Gong Wu to break it down. Still nothing. He told them to move out of the way and collected his chi. He could feel his own, whole, pure, and the sorceress's, tired, fractured, two energies forced together to create a greater power.

He used his power to blow the door open, shattering the stone lock. It felt great. Like he had been restrained his entire life and only now allowed to be free. Beautiful, raw power. A fierce pride burned in his chest at his new abilities.

Kimiko gently grabbed his upper arm as the others rushed past him into the Jackbots. "Be careful Rai. We don't know what your powers will do yet." He put his other hand on top of hers.

"Don't worry. You're not getting rid of me yet," he said, and the two of them rushed into the fray together.

Jackbots practically flew into their attacks, almost like their controller wasn't really interested in fighting them. Jack didn't even fight back, despite the fact that he held the Eye of Dashi in one hand. The woman next to him had no such reservations though. The black and white longbow from the armory materialized in her hand and she shot off a succession of arrows.

He barely had to think to send up a shield to protect his team. She looked down in distain, but didn't join in the battle. He almost wished she would. Chase was right about her. She knew no loyalty.

Then the cat warriors began to move in. Slowly at first, only replacing Jackbots. Before long, they were the primary opponent. It didn't matter though. Even the burliest knight or swiftest tiger was no match for him.

Chase, Wuya, and Minerva looked down at them, but didn't join in, only occasionally throwing a bolt of magic at them. Jack looked half apologetic whenever a Jackbot's laser almost hit someone.

He sidestepped a bolt of blue light and sent the only offensive spell he knew at the three magicians. He didn't think he would hit anyone, he hoped it did, but he didn't really care. There were bigger problems in front of him. Like the tiger trying to claw out his neck.

He knocked it back, but not before it nicked his shoulder. Burning pain flashed through his body. He put a hand to his injured shoulder and was actually surprised when it came away bloody. He was far too powerful to get hurt. He scanned the writhing mass of fur for the animal that did this. Now anger burned far more than the pain.

He saw it licking its leg off to the side and sent a strong gust at it. It flew against a wall and crumpled to the ground. Good. That's what it deserved for daring to defy him. It accomplished something more than revenge though. Upon seeing his warriors get what was coming to them, Chase leapt down the stairs to join the fray. He was followed by the other two magicians.

"You see that Kim?" He said, backing up to her and using his powers to blow back the amazon she was fighting.

"Yes. What did you do to that cat?" She actually sounded angry with him. "It wasn't a threat anymore."

"It's not important. But look, those cowards joined in the fun." he gestured to the evildoers. Omi was holding his own against Chase, Clay was doing similarly well against the witch. The sorceress was nowhere to be seen however. He knew that was probably not a good thing.

"Calm down. Omi and Clay are doing fine," she said, kicking a leopard in the jaw. "You should probably sit out for a while. Your shoulder looks terrible." He knew that wasn't the reason. Why did she always lie to him? Did she think he couldn't handle it?

No matter, he would deal with insubordination later. He had to take down Chase. He started for him, but he didn't get more than thirty feet before he was stopped by a sharp blow to his back. He fell to his knees and immediately sprang back up, looking for the goddamn shapeshifter.

"I can't let you do this boy," he heard her voice behind him. He whipped around to find her in human form. "Stop fighting. You'll all be safer if you do."

"In a world ruled by puff the magic dragon," he said, striking out at her head. "No worries though. We can all sell out." She stayed calm and kept on dodging. Every time he failed to wipe that self-serving smirk off her face, the burning pain in his chest grew.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

There was something wrong with Rai. He was normally relaxed and jokey, but now it almost seemed falsely exaggerated, covering up something worse. He tore apart a Jackbot with his bare hands, she didn't want to know how badly the tiger was hurt, he mistook Clay for one of the cats. The sorceress did something to him.

Minerva hadn't taken her threat seriously, but Kimiko would make her see that she was wrong. As soon as she got out of the fur fest. A while later, she found herself fighting back to back with Omi. The youngest monk's hands and arms were covered in burns even though his entire body was coated in a layer of water.

A fireball flew by her head. It felt so foreign for fire to be dangerous. Normally, she would be on the other end of this. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Chase preparing to attack again. She whipped around and hit his elbow with an open palmed strike designed to paralyze. Without the armor, the limb would have been reduced to a flopping bag of flesh.

"You stole from the wrong monk," she hissed, making eye contact. The powers of the dragons weren't meant to be used by evil. They were to keep the world in balance.

"Steal is such an ugly phrase," he said. "Let's use "took back what's rightfully mine."" She threw a nerve strike at the base of his neck, one of the few places the strange metal didn't cover. He effortlessly dodged and made a plume of flame fly at her. She bent backwards to dodge, not having enough time to get out of the way.

She lashed out, and somehow her foot made contact with his chest, right above his heart. His armor glowed where her shoe struck. He growled in pain, but she heard it as if through water. She knew a memory was coming, and she couldn't blame the sorceress for it. This one felt different. Like something coming back to her.

"_Don't point that thing at me. You should know that just a knick from a necreterna blade is enough to kill an immortal," she hissed, shrinking back a little from the dagger in Master's hand. Instead of sticking the Witch with it like she wanted, Master flipped it over, his own hands protected by armored gloves, and she took it. The Witch summoned a leather sheath and nervously tied the knife at her waist. _

"_It's almost time," Master said, running a hand through his hair. She could tell he was still worried about his plan. He shouldn't have been. He was Master after all. _

_For a moment, both of them were quiet. Then he tentatively took the Witch in his arms and held her for a while. She was confused as to why Master was holding her the way he was. The Witch was annoying, scheming, and disloyal. _

She came to a moment later, being pushed out of the way of a blast. Omi checked to make sure she was okay before going back to fighting the dragon man. She didn't have time to think about what she saw because almost as soon as she figured out what was going on, she was surrounded by cats.

Things weren't going well for them. If not for the cats, they would have a chance. Facing both the Heylin warriors and the cats, they were backed up against the walls. The only one who was doing even slightly well was Rai. If only because of his powers. The sorceress's constant shapeshifting and use of magic kept things fairly even.

She saw a stream of fire fly across the entry hall, searing off the top of Clay's hat. Kimiko knew he missed his target. However, Omi was not the object of his ire. Wuya dropped her Shen Gong Wu in her struggle with the dragon of the Earth. The blast gave her time to retrieve the Eye of Dashi.

As the momentary look of relief spread across the dark prince's face, Kimiko realized that she knew his weakness. They would have to pose more of a threat to distract Chase though. Raimundo was the only one of them that was even remotely mobile and the most powerful one of the group. She had to tell him somehow, but the cats pressed in on all sides. She fought for an opening, but couldn't get one.

Seeing Omi launching himself off a wall gave her an idea. She jumped back against the wall and used it to get herself over the first few cats. She skipped over the backs and heads of the remaining warriors to get to Raimundo.

"Go and help Clay. I've got things here," she said, landing next to him, barely dodging a kick from the sorceress.

"What about the cats?" He asked, turning towards her briefly. She noticed the silver in his eyes covered almost half his pupil.

"I said I've got it," she said, pushing him towards Wuya. He started to argue, but a bolt of magical energy separated them and he flew towards the pagoda where Clay and the witch were fighting.

"It looks like it's just you and me bird brain," she said, circling the sorceress.

"Good. Beating on him gets so very dull don't you think?" She said, not rising to the bait.

"I wouldn't know. Evil's so not my thing," she replied.

"Not mine either," she said, shrugging and throwing a lightning fast strike at her arm. She knew that would bruise tomorrow. Kimiko kicked at her kegs, but the shapeshifter jumped over her head and pushed her forwards.

"You're going to need to take him down you know," the sorceress said in her ear. Kimiko whipped around, but she wasn't there. "I really am sorry about the boy, he showed such promise, but a rogue elemental is just too dangerous."

The monk heard the blast before she felt it, a faint hissing noise. A blue-gray light engulfed her and she found herself levitating a good twenty feet off the ground, unable to move. The griffin flew around her, a grave expression on her face.

"I have to be quick about this, but listen to me," she started, her voice deadly quiet. "You have to be the one who takes him down. He won't let anyone else get close enough without killing him. Once he's exhausted have Chase help you with the ritual."

"You're not seriously thinking that I'd trust you? Even you're not that dumb," she said.

"Let me finish drainling. All sorcerous minds are connected. That's why I was able to do what I did to you. I couldn't do it to Raimundo if I tried. I could give him one memory, but they wouldn't keep coming back," she said. "During the ritual, you need to get into Chase's head. Find the Fire spell. As soon as you finish with the boy, start the spell. I'll join in."

"Why don't you just give me the spell right now if you want to get rid of Chase so much," she spat, only to be silenced by a feathery wing.

"I've recently come in possession of information that indicates that this whole power switching business is a bad idea. Chase snapped the connection between our minds to prevent my memories from inadvertently breaking his hold over you," she hissed in her ear. "While you're performing the ritual on the boy, just imagine a connection between you and Chase. This would be so much easier if you had your stupid armor, but we'll have to make due."

"You've promised to help us before. Every time it's gotten worse for us," she said.

The sorceress started to respond, but before she could say anything, a strong gust of wind blew the griffin away and sent Kimiko spinning. She started drifting slowly downwards and saw Wuya held up against a wall by gale force winds. Rai rushed forwards to deliver what could have been a finishing blow, but tripped over something.

She saw an amber glow out of the corner of her eye, she turned to see Chase shoving Omi out of the way and readying a massive attack. "Sagittarius Arrow, Fire." The light flew from his hands in a thin beam towards the dragon of the Wind.

"Rai! No!" She screamed, looking on in horror as the light from the blast filled the room.

**Haha. I finally understand the appeal of a cliffhanger ending. (insert Jack laugh here) Please review. It would make me quite happy. **


	16. Nocturne Sonata

**I just have one thing to say. 69. I did not believe that I had exactly 69 reviews. It made me giggle quite a lot. (I know. This gives you a wonderful view of my maturity level.) Amuletspade, quick question. Can I take you home and make you my personal self esteem coach? Seriously, fifteen straight reviews. Wow. Also, thanks to SS. Mahana, Sundragon27, and Spottedwind19. The best possible explanation for the spell thingy is that Min can't just give Kimiko the fire version of the power transfer spell used in chapters 14 and 12. This was kind of a hard chapter for me to write. It's much darker than what I'm used to and it feels like things just happen for no reason. Now for something totally different...  
**

**Disclaimer: Seeing House clicker train Cuddy's daughter like a dog almost counts as House getting a puppy. Particle Physics Damn Almost. I don't own anything. **

**_Nocturne Sonata_  
**

He closed his eyes and waited for absolution. A rush of heat that would tell him it was all over, that he let the others down. He flew back into the wall, surprised that it was not fire, but rather an all-encompassing blunt impact. The burning pain in his chest and dull ache in his shoulder told him that he wasn't yet dead.

He opened his eye a crack, half-expecting to see his life draining away through the silver haze that now clouded his vision, only to find that the silver had turned to storm gray. His face was covered in something soft, smelling vaguely of perfume and animal. The griffin groaned and started to drag herself off his body, but she only got a few feet before her left foreleg collapsed under her weight.

Leaning on the wall for support, he started to stand up, unable to believe what just happened. This went against everything he knew about the sorceress. He was grateful she saved him, but couldn't help but wonder what was in it for her. The expression on Chase's face flickered between shock and fury. He lashed out at Omi in his frustration, the dragon of the Water dodged and the rest of the room abandoned the stillness that had fallen over it as the battle broke out again.

He walked carefully over to his fallen mentor, most of the cats ignoring him after the thing with the tiger. He had to find out why she did that.

"What do you want boy?" She rasped. Her left shoulder was twisted at an impossible angle and a lot of the flesh seared off. "Here to gloat over the traitor?"

"Are you alright?" He asked, ignoring her comment. Even in pain, she still found the strength to roll her eyes.

"If I had a Shen Gong Wu for every time someone tried to kill me, I'd be ruling the world. This is nothing," she said, still as if she was talking about the weather. "Healing magic is a wonderful thing, and thankfully Sparky's fire magic cauterized the wound instantly."

"Why did you do it?" He asked, trying not to look at the shattered joint. He couldn't help but notice a little spark of worry flash across her face.

"Doesn't matter. Go help the water child, he needs you far more than I do," she hissed, shooing him towards a steam cloud with her head. For some reason, he got the feeling she was sending him into a trap, but he didn't want to tick her off right now.

He rushed over to the battle, but when he got there, Omi was not faring well at all. It was all he could do to avoid the fireballs Chase was almost nonchalantly tossing at him. Rai sent up a wind shield around the Water Dragon to keep him from being totally fried.

"I got this one Omi. Go help Kim with the cats," he said, stepping between Chase and the smaller boy. Omi hesitated for a second, unwilling to give up something he worked so hard on, but did as he said.

"I see your powers have grown considerably Dragon of the Wind," Chase said, the two super powered warriors circling each other. "Tell me, how are you at controlling them?" Completely calm, borderline indifferent.

"My control's better than your aim," he shot back, sending a blast of wind at the sorcerer. He was almost tempted to ask Chase if he saw everything in monotone now too. It was disorienting to see the world in shades of silver and gray.

"Please. I could give you a target the size of Jupiter and you would miss," he said, painting a flaming bull's eye in the air. The flames condensed into one and shot at him, Raimundo tried to dodge, but it still seared his hair.

The smaller boy flew up in the air and waited for Chase to follow him. He would have the advantage in the air. The sorcerer's body rippled as he transformed into his draconian form. The wings shot out of his back and he flew at the wind dragon.

"You've learned something from that old airhead. Always run if you can't win." The dragon man sent thin bolts of fire at him, Raimundo put up a wind shield, but the fire burst through. It singed his hands and he summoned a cooling breeze for some relief.

"I'm not running. I'm not afraid of you. You can't beat me," he said, using a strong gust to blow the sorcerer away. Chase's form shifted, and he teleported back to the Dragon of the Wind. He looked completely at ease, only his flapping hair showing that he was in the middle of a maelstrom.

"I believe I should let you in on a little secret," Chase said, vanishing before his eyes. "Only a fool never fears." He felt a blast of heat hit him squarely between the shoulder blades and bit back a cry of pain.

Who was this old petty magician, thinking that he could fight against his power? A worthless old hat. Nothing more. He couldn't even face him head on, resorting to sneak attacks and parlor tricks. He screamed his rage at this street performer, this charlatan, and summoned a barely restrained tornado around himself.

The has-been appeared in front of him, looking confident and unshaken by the storm. He waved his hand and instantly the tornado changed into a raging firestorm, with the dragon of the Wind trapped in the center. The intense heat sucked the oxygen out of the air. He fought for air, blackness beginning to creep in at the edges of his vision, but couldn't fight against floating down towards the heart of the flames.

Just as he began to feel it melting the bottoms of his sneakers, the firestorm stopped and he fell to the ground, gasping for air. Just as he began to catch his breath, he heard the sorceress scolding from the other side of the room.

"Watch out for that knife you stupid girl. That poison can kill an immortal." His eyes shot towards her voice.

Kimiko was barely managing to dodge Wuya's knife. He knew that Kimiko was perfectly capable of defending herself, so he began to look for Chase again. However, just as he turned his head, he saw the dragon of Fire fall over backwards and the Heylin Witch lunge. If he were paying attention, he would have seen his body begin to glow silver and he would have felt his last bit of control slip away.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

Kimiko rolled out of the way of the knife just in time. The stone blade slammed into the floor, severing a bit of her ponytail. She unconsciously winced, thinking about just how hard it would be to cover that up. She jumped back to her feet just in time to see a silver blur fly over both her and the witch's head.

"Oh Ra. This may be a bit of a setback," the sorceress said, her head shooting up from her talons. Kimiko thought about another situation. Exact same tone, exact same words, only thirty-seven hundred years ago it was over a wine stain on a dress.

"What just happened?" She asked, trying to keep track of the blur flying around the room. The Witch had become similarly motionless.

"Your boyfriend there just sent us to hell in a handbasket," she explained, her voice still at a dress stain level of worry. That was enough to freak out the former dragon of Fire. Any diversion from her calm indifference was significant enough to warrant worry.

"You really screwed up this time birdie," Wuya said. "Jack's never even done anything this bad." As if in response to this, the self-dubbed boy genius hovered over to them.

"You see! I told you this was a bad idea," he said, landing and cutting the power to his helipack. "Your stupid power grabbing is going to doom us all!"

"Shut up Jack," the three women said at once. He started to protest, but his words were swallowed by the raging wind that suddenly whipped up. Kimiko finally found the source of the blur. Raimundo hung –no stood- mid air in the center of the room, his entire body looking like molten silver.

"What in the samhill's goin' on?" Clay came skidding over to them, his blonde hair askew in the gusts.

"This incompetent preformed a highly risky spell on an unprepared recipient," Wuya said, pointing an accusatory finger at the fallen sorceress.

"You gods be damned upstart!" Minerva snapped, shifting to her human form, and slowly getting to her feet. Kimiko turned her face away slightly, The mangled mass of twisted bone and charred flesh that was once her left shoulder wasn't a pretty sight. Somehow, she knew that the sorceress was more upset by the insult to her ability more than her failure. "The exact same thing could have happened to Chase. Before this happened, I figured that fighting Chase would wear him out."

"He was prepared. He took precautions against this." The witch poked the knife at her. "You never even thought that you might need to end this."

For once, she was unable to argue, only massage her mangled shoulder and quietly fume.

"It doesn't matter whose fault it is, we need to fix this," Kimiko said, trying to sound calm.

"We can't bring him under control long enough. He's completely lost to the power," Minerva said, still sounding resentful. "In a few hours, he'll be dead and his power will go on to another. If that happens, we're all going to wish we joined him."

"We can't just let him die," she pleaded. The sorceress looked regretful, like she didn't want to admit that they were useless. "We can still wear him down. There's only one of him."

"He can't feel exhaustion anymore. He's not human," the shapeshifter snapped. "All we can do is wait and hope that the Celestial Dragons don't destroy us for upsetting the balance of power."

"The Celestial Dragons? There is a good chance you've brought them down upon us and you didn't say anything?" Wuya shrieked.

"I tried to tell you, but would you listen? No. It's always Worm do this, Worm do that," Jack screamed, waving his arms around.

Kimiko tried to tune out Jack ranting, and realized that she hadn't seen Chase since the blast. She felt a gust of scorching hot air fly by her face, and looked up to see Chase and Raimundo still going at it. Only this time, she noticed something different about the sorcerer. A desperate need to win. And something else. Something she couldn't quite associate with Chase. Fear.

"I am unsure of who we should support," Omi said, flying by them, tossed by the wind. Clay lassoed him and pulled him back to the group.

"I don't rightly know," the cowboy said. "Rai's our buddy, but if what Minerva says is true…we have to let that outlaw win."

Everyone grew quiet considering the idea. The idea of loosing their friend was almost too much to get their minds around. Raimundo was so happy and full of life. Nothing like the violently destructive force that existed now. She felt tears pricking at her eyes, but she wouldn't let herself cry. There would be time for mourning later.

"You cannot defeat me. I am the Lord of the Wind. Master of the Air," what used to be Rai said. She could hear a little bit of the voice she so enjoyed hearing underneath the metallic, silvery tenor.

Chase didn't respond, instead only summoned a swirling fire vortex. A blazing inferno consumed the center of the room. A momentary expression of relief crossed the sorcerer's face, only to be replaced by resigned determination when the Dragon of the Wind burst out, a gust of icy air diffusing the flames.

"Dark Pheonix, Fire," Chase shouted, the black flames leaping from his body and condensing into an elegant bird. The bird flew at the boy, eager to protect its master, but even a combination of Heylin magic and elemental power wasn't enough to deter him. With just a wave of his hand, the black flames dissipated.

"Foolish mortal. You are naught but the smallest fly compared to me. Surrender now and I will end you quickly," the silver being laughed. He waved his hand and sent a wave of silver bolts at the sorcerer, one of them piercing his armor in the calf.

Chase winced for just a moment, and then sent a thin ribbon of flame directly at Rai's chest. It hit him just above the heart, but nothing happened. In fact, the silver creature just sent it back at him. The warlock tried to sidestep, but the bolt changed direction and caught him in the chest.

He fell back and his head slammed against the floor. The sorcerer didn't get back up. The Wind spirit floated down and began slowly advancing towards the fallen warrior, as if finishing him off was only of minimal concern.

Wuya, Jack, Minerva, and the jungle cats moved between him and Chase. "How touching. Loyalty from this lot." He held his hand outstretched, and the group parted against their will. In her surprise, the witch dropped the stone bladed knife. It clattered to the ground twenty feet in front of what used to be Raimundo.

He reached the knife and picked it up with out a word, examining it as he continued towards the unconscious sorcerer.

"Let this be a message to all who dare defy The Wind Lord," he said, standing over Chase. He knelt down by his head and was about to press the knife into his neck when the wind spirit hesitated. The collective group stood motionless, waiting for what would happen next.

She felt a light tap on her shoulder, she turned slowly so as not to draw attention. Jack was standing behind her, nervously fiddling with his goggles. "The board bitch told me to tell you that she was wrong," he whispered. She couldn't believe it. Min admitting she was wrong. That was a first.

"What?" She asked, half incredulous, half curious.

"She said to tell you that maybe there's still some of –these are her words not mine. Don't hit me- that bloody nitwit left," he said. She couldn't deny that there was a little flicker of hope here. Just a flicker though. "She said that you're the only one he'll let get close enough to bring it out. You just need to wait for her signal."

To say she was unsure of what was to do would be an understatement, but Rai could die if she didn't do something, and gauging by the reactions of the older magic users, the Celestial Dragons were no picnic either. Her decision was made up for her a moment later.

"Just drop the knife boy. You haven't the heart for killing," the sorceress said, although she wasn't looking at Raimundo. She was making direct eye contact with Kimiko and gesturing with her head for her to go forwards.

**Bullocks this isn't my best work. It didn't end quite where I wanted it to. So, who wants review cookies? You know that you want them. And you know that you need them. You want the chips. The chocolate chips. **


	17. Forgiveness

**Hi everybody! Thanks to Healingspringwaters, AmuletSpade, SS Mahana, Spottedwind19, and Daughter of the Greek Gods for reviewing. I just want to say that everybody's support has made writing this fic much easier. This was the hardest chapter for me to write. I'm going to miss Sky Heart. It's my first fic. I don't think the next one can quite measure up to this. However, as fun as it was to write, all good things must come to an end. Enjoy.  
**

**Disclaimer: Recent circumstances have put Dr. House in possession of a puppy. I still own nothing, and will own nothing until the radioactive fetal pig in a jar leaves Grissom's office. **

**_Forgiveness_  
**

"Talk him down. Attacking will only send him into a further frenzy. Only it'll be directed at you. Now, while I've got no issues with this, I'm sure you'll disagree," the sorceress hissed in her ear. "And ignore anything I say. I'm just providing white noise. Something for your voice to rise above, possibly a distraction if you mess up."

With her good arm, she pushed Kimiko towards the elemental. "Rai?" she said, not sure she was going to do any good. "Can you hear me?" The elemental gave no indication of noticing her.

"Come off it girl. There's nothing left. Just a killer." She tried to tune out the older woman and tried to focus on Raimundo.

"Don't listen to her Rai," she said, trying to sound calm. "You're no killer. You're a sweet guy. You do stupid things sometimes, but you always come through for us."

He still showed no response. As she got closer to the silver boy, she noticed the air becoming stiller and stiller. As if in response to its master's confusion.

"You like surfing, math, soccer, running, video games. You'll never beat me at Goo Zombies though," she said. Minerva had told her to remind him of who he was, she figured she'd give it her best shot. She couldn't loose him.

"Stupid boy. Never going to amount to anything. Worthless ignoramus." The sorceress spat. "Betrayed your friends more than once, let them down countless times."

"You're smart, determined, you never let anything get you down for long, so long as they're not pulled on me, your pranks are actually pretty funny. Please come back to us. Our team's not complete without you. I'll go crazy without you, so I'm only giving you one choice," she said. She wasn't sure where the words came from, but they seemed right.

He still didn't move. She was almost close enough to touch him. His body looked almost like liquid, when what remained of the firelight hit him right, he was almost translucent.

"Don't listen to her boy. Show them you have what it takes eradicate evil for good. Go on. Do it."

"He'd better not listen to you old one," Wuya snarled. Kimiko didn't really hear though.

"You're not like this. I can talk to you about almost anything. You can make me feel better about anything. You wanted to help me so much when I thought I was going crazy. I don't want to loose you," she said, holding back tears. She had to be strong now. She couldn't afford to show weakness.

She wasn't sure if she was imagining it, but it looked like he was trembling slightly. Not enough for the rest of the group to notice, but there it was. Fear, hesitation, regret. A thin bloody line formed along the edge of the knife and single drop of crimson rolled to the floor.

"I know it seems like you don't know me, but you do. I remember watching horrible movies with you and making amazing fireworks. I've seen a lot of things I wish I could forget, but I never want to forget that night on the roof. I know you remember me Rai. I know you remember how much I care about you," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. He felt very cold and smooth, metallic.

Suddenly, he shot to his feet and whipped around. She jumped back to avoid the knife.

"Who are you to talk to me in this manner?" He asked, advancing towards her. Even in her terror, she couldn't help but notice a thin ring of green in his eyes.

_**X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X**_

The mortal backed away from him. Who did she think she was? Trying to distract him from his rightful kill. He was the ruler of the winds, he answered to no one. He lunged, but she leapt to the side. Why couldn't these stupid mortals accept their fates? The dragon man had been far more foolish though. He had the nerve to fight.

"Worthless. Never worthy of the title "Dragon of the Wind." Waste of my time teaching that one," the shape shifter called. He would make sure to finish her off once he dealt with the others. No one insulted him without punishment.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Witch run to dragon man's side. No matter. He would deal with them together if that's what they wanted.

He lunged for the girl again; only this time when she tried to dodge he used a gust of wind to trip her. She landed hard and he pounced for the final blow, but his arm stopped just an inch above her body.

"_No, I can't hurt her. I can't do this," _a voice in his head whispered. Why couldn't he just end this stupid mortal? She didn't have a quarter of his power, and yet something stopped him. He raised the knife over his head again and used the wind to keep her from moving. The terror in her crystalline eyes shone brightly.

"_I am the wind. I take orders from no one. I will not hurt her,"_ the voice whispered, stronger this time. He would have to ignore this. The voice wasn't a part of him. It was something foreign. Something weak.

He brought the knife down, but somehow the trajectory of his arm changed. The point of the blade imbedded itself in the stone floor.

"_I'm taking back control. I will not let anyone else get hurt because of what I've become. I don't want this power anymore. I want my body back,"_ the voice roared. Not very loud, but the quiet intensity gave him pause when he tried to pull the knife out. Maybe this mortal was more trouble than she was worth.

"Rai please. This isn't you, come back to us." Not begging. The girl was far too proud for that. For a second, the weaker presence in his mind had the upper hand, but it receded, leaving perfect balance between the two forces.

He called back his winds, he would need all his strength to fight this new enemy. He found he still couldn't move though. "You will obey me," he snarled. "I am the Wind Lord. Whatever you are, you haven't the courage to face me."

Why was he shaking? For a moment, his vision changed from the familiar shades of silver-gray to something different and he felt a burning, all encompassing pain. What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he just finish off this mortal?

A more pressing question might have been why didn't she run. When he called back his powers, he released her, and yet she was still there, kneeling at his level. She picked up her hand off the floor and after a moment's hesitation, placed it over his on the knife. He wanted to recoil in disgust. Filthy, disgusting mortal. But the weak presence kept him from doing so.

"Rai? You're coming back with us whether you want to or not. It's your turn to do the dishes," she said, for some reason, she was smiling. Why would she ever do that? Did she have any idea who she was dealing with?

"_I am going back with her. You're not going to stop me. I am Raimundo, Dragon of the Wind, and this is my body. I'll be taking it back if you please. I believe I have chores to avoid," _the voice yelled.

He felt his control over the weak force slipping. His vision slipped back and forth between sliver-gray to the strange colors. And then it was over. The pain in his chest burned more powerfully than ever. He felt Kim's hand on top of his and he looked up at her eyes. Blue. Beautiful sapphire blue.

"Help me," he whispered weakly as the world faded to black.

**_X~X~X~X~X~XX~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

"Help me," he whispered as he collapsed into her arms. His body had lost all traces of the silver translucence.

"Don't worry. It's over," she said.

Minerva strode over and grimaced in pain as she changed the floor around them to white gems. "You did well girl. Come on, let's get this done with."

She nodded and retreated to the edge of the circle. The sorceress drew the Moonstone Locust out of her pocket and fit it into a space in the center of the gems and came back to the edge. The two of them began to recite the spell. Joy and rage, gentleness and destruction.

Gentle winds carried him up into the air where he began to glow silver again. The silver drained from his body and separated into two lights. One strong and steady, he other flickering weakly. The steady light returned to Rai's body, but instead of returning to Minerva, the weak light vanished, sparkling defiantly to the last.

He drifted slowly down, the winds seeming to sense their master's pain and exhaustion.

"Alright. We need to get your powers back. I'd rather not have certain elemental forces angry with me right now," the sorceress said softly, guiding Kimiko towards Chase.

Wuya was standing by him, trying to heal the thin cut. For whatever reason, it wasn't healing. She stepped aside to let two of his warriors pick him up and carry him towards one of the meditation chambers. They followed them and watched as they set him down in center of a floor made entirely of rubies.

"Go on. I haven't got all eternity," Minerva said, pushing her forwards with her good arm. "Put your hand on his chest, right above his heart, imagine a connection. Think about the fire spell." She did so numbly, really just wanting to find out if Rai was going to be alright.

His armor glowed where she placed her hand. She thought about fire. The warmth and power of fire. It didn't take long for what seemed like the right spell to come to her mind.

She went back to the black stone edge and began chanting the spell. Minerva joined in a moment later. This spell felt a thousand times more natural than the wind spell.

It spoke of light and warmth, blazing passion, creation and destruction as one. Flames shot up from the floor, through them she saw a small sphere of red light coming towards her. Her body absorbed the light and she knew with absolute certainty that her powers were back. The flames died down and she saw the weaker glow that was once Chase's power flicker and fade.

The shape shifter walked over to her fallen apprentice and unceremoniously nudged him aside with her foot. She popped the Ruby of Ramses out of the floor and removed the Star Hanabi beneath it.

Kimiko wasn't paying much attention to this however. She was already half way out the door. The rest of the warriors were already waiting outside the lair bedside Dojo. The three able bodied warriors hopped onto his back and pulled Rai up after them. Just as they were about to take off, she heard someone clearing their throat below them.

"Could I possibly get a lift back to the temple?" The sorceress asked, half embarrassed. "I can't very well fly home with this mess of a limb and I believe you owe me half a bucket of unripe cherries." This last bit added on in a rushed manner, as if excusing her request.

"It appears that you have reclaimed your honor," Omi said, the round-headed monk sounding tired, but pleased. "We would gladly welcome you back to the temple." The sorceress nodded and sprang lightly onto Dojo's back.

Kimiko was a little wary of this. She still didn't totally trust the old woman, but it wasn't the most pressing matter on her mind. She would deal with Min later, but for now, she was content with the victories they had. She got her powers back. Rai was still alive. They saved the world. That was enough for now.

**So, before I give you an immensely fluffy epilogue -I will actually require all readers to get a shot that boosts fluff resistance-, what did you think of this fic? Things I could improve on, things I did well, things you may want to see in the sequel. You won't get oatmeal raisin review cookies unless you do. **


	18. Epilogue

**So, this Sky Heart nonsense is over. I'm sad about that, but happy with how this chapter turned out. My loyal readers, you get a quasi-fluffy chapter just a little late for valentines day. Yay for Hallmark Holidays and chocolate. Thanks go to: xFirechickx, Healingspringwaters, Sundragon27, The Anonymous Candybar, Amuletspade, TheMagicCat, Spottedwind19, SS Mahana, XSrules95, and anyone who has ever reviewed for me. You have made me happier than a Grissom with a bug. And now for something totally different...**

**Disclaimer: The fetal pig in a jar in Grissom's office is sacred. Removal of the pig will result in 10,000 years of darkness that even the Xiaolin Warriors can't reverse. Or Hodges will take over the crime lab. Which ever one's worse. Until that time comes, I do not own Xiaolin Showdown. **

**_Epilogue_  
**

_Tens all around for this one,_ he thought, looking over the ledge at the temple before lying back on the grass. . This one was a stroke of genius. A note left in the vault reading: _Greetings Xiaolin Losers. It is I, Jack Spicer, Evil Boy Genius, Emperor of all Darkness. I have taken your Shen Gong Wu to use in my nefarious scheme. Mwahahahaha!_ Just to add a touch of realism, there was a pudding stain in the corner of the page. Then he moved the Wu around so that none were in the correct drawer. Perfect for creating confusion.

Maybe it was a little sadistic to watch the rest of the temple scrambling around trying to find out what "Jack" was up to, but he needed to relax. He had spent so much of the last week moping about the battle that he was eager to let off a little steam.

He knew he should have been happier about winning, but he wasn't. He remembered feeling like a god, and he wasn't happy to admit it, but he liked it. He hated what that feeling made him do though. He remembered pressing that knife into Chase's neck, completely prepared to slice down. That was the first time he felt the power's control slipping. Then he was about to do the same thing to Kim. He wasn't about to let what he had become hurt her.

He remembered waking up in the infirmary the next day. With one day of the Time of the Lion left, she practically radiated power. She was so beautiful then, her red aura dancing like a flame around her body.

As if in response to his thoughts, there as a gentle thud in the grass next to him. "Never let me do that again." It appeared that Kimiko was back from her shopping trip with Min. Initially she had been against the sorceress coming back to the temple, but she quickly realized that it meant that she wouldn't be the only girl anymore. A girl's bonding trip was quickly planned in response.

She spent most of the first couple days here arguing with Master Fung about her contract. As he understood it, she actually got more leeway in terms of side loyalty in exchange for helping to train the rest of the warriors. Two days ago, she was acting stranger than usual, leaving for hours on end. When he and Clay went up to her cave to help move some weaponry down to the temple, she practically bit their heads off for trying to tidy up one corner of the armory.

"How'd you find me up here?" He asked, sitting up. Her face was a combination of frustration and relief.

"If you had nothing to do with this, you'd be down there going crazy, and you wouldn't want to miss out on Omi having a mental breakdown," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Good point. So how'd girl's bonding day go?" He said. She sighed in an exasperated manner. This couldn't be good, but it had to be entertaining.

"It was actually pretty fun until she tried to see if the barter system was still in effect some places. Let's just leave it at cashiers do not accept goats as payment for shoes. Then she had to bring up the sorcery thing." The old bat had insisted that Kim train as a sorceress for the past couple of days. Kim was decidedly against this. "So are you free tonight or are you going spend your evening acting depressed?"

"I think I'm free, unless you've got other plans," he said, hoping that she had other plans. He had spent countless hours trying to come up with a date that didn't involve fighting evil.

"Then prepare yourself for two hours of B movie horror," she said, smirking and pulling something out of her pocket. "Two tickets to Croctosharkasaurus 17." Their favorite bad movie series. Omi unfortunately took it too seriously, Clay thought it was just stupid, and so the rampaging mutant hybrid had become their thing.

"So we get so see the world after all land has been destroyed and the remains of the human population are living in fear of Crocky on a giant life raft," he said. He was already writing jokes in his head.

"Don't forget we get to find out if Sylvia's baby is Damian's or the Croctosharkasaurus's. The most important conflict facing mankind," she said, mock serious.

"Ten thousand times more pressing than fifteen hundred years of darkness," he replied, holding her hand. "What time?"

"It starts at eight, but Dojo's chaperoning so make sure you're ready at seven," she said. The last time the team had gone to the movies, the dragon had gotten them completely lost and they almost missed the first half of Inception. "And we're dressing up as Scott and Adriana like last time."

"Sounds great," he said, putting his arm around her. "Now, would you care to watch Jack Spicer's greatest theft ever?" He gestured to the temple below.

"Absolutely," she said, kissing his cheek and putting her head on his shoulder.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

"Are we going to bother telling them that the Wu are safe?" Dojo asked, coiled around a flowerpot.

"Nah. I haven't seen scrambling like this since Dashi discovered invisibility spells," the sorceress said, examining her crimson nails. "Would you believe that people don't accept goats as payment anymore?"

"I think I might have heard something about that. Along with the discovery of air," he replied, smirking. He was grateful that he was important to the temple. Minerva would have tormented anybody else.

"You're lucky I only have one arm," she said. The burn had stitched itself back together in hours, the break was still painfully healing.

"I'll keep that in mind next time I need someone to write something. Hey, have you heard back from the council yet?" He asked. they had to find out if the Celestial Dragons had awakened before their time.

"Nope. We're still good," she said. He nodded. That was a good sign.

"I bet Iggy's still mad at me for stealing his girl," he laughed nervously. The ruler of Fire had a temper and a reputation for holding a grudge.

"Ignatius has probably forgotten all about it. He's a bloody ditz," she said. "Now, I'm going to get some coffee. Tell me exactly what the monk with the hair does." She pointed to Master Vic, the poor guy looked absolutely frazzled trying to keep track of which Wu they actually had.

The little green dragon settled in for some good watching. He might not ever be as funny as Dashi, but the dragon of the Wind certainly tried.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

She felt something nudge her hand, she would never get used to these cats. Probably telling her to get out of Master's throne. She shoved the leopard's face away. She wasn't in the mood to deal with stupid cats right now.

The leopard gave what she could only describe as an exasperated meow and shifted forms. "I thought I should tell you, Master is finally awake," the warrior said. She couldn't deny that her heart jumped hearing this. The poison from the knife made Chase so sick, and that little cut refused to heal.

The dragon of the Wind hadn't made the cut deep enough to end it quickly. At the beginning, she wished he had. Chase had spent days in fevered dreams, changing forms suddenly, twitching and convulsing unconsciously as his life slowly slipped away. Seeing as the essence of horseflower was next to impossible to come across this time of year, she felt absolutely helpless.

Then, two days ago, quite unexpectedly, a little purple vial showed up in the statue they used to hold their Shen Gong Wu, along with a lone gray feather and the Whip of Anubis missing. She worried that the horseflower came too late, but he began to improve dramatically. His ragged, irregular breathing became less labored and steadier. The knife wound was healing.

Her hand hovered over the doorknob in a rare moment of modesty. The leopard nudged her forwards; she half reluctantly entered the room.

He was sitting on the edge of his bed, practically leaning on the wall, fumbling with the buckles on his armor. He still looked pale and sickly. She could practically hear him mentally cursing his foreign seeming fingers.

"Here, let me help," she said, crossing the room and fastening the shoulder plate in one quick motion.

"Never asked for it," he said, she could tell it was halfhearted though.

"No, but you needed it," she said. A sure sign of his exhaustion, he failed to roll his eyes and instead looked up at her. His drawn, haggard face containing none of his normal irritation.

"What happened with the Xiaolin Dragons?" He asked. Of course he would be far less concerned with what happened to him and more about where his plans went wrong.

"It turns out that the power of two dragons in one body upsets the balance of the universe. You and the wind boy may very well have brought the powers of the Ancient Ones down upon us. Somehow, the girl managed to talk him down though," she said. He nodded and winced.

"I hoped we could at least get rid of one of them," he said. He laughed a little before adding, "I blame Jack." She smiled and fastened another buckle. "Do we know yet if they've awakened?"

"We'll know if they're angry. I've seen it once, long before your time, and it's not something easily forgotten," she said.

"Good," he said numbly. He was quiet a minute before his eyes suddenly focused on a spot on the ceiling. "Wuya? Perhaps we can turn this to our advantage." He took one of her hands in his. His hand shook a little and felt impossibly weak.

"Who's to say the Xiaolin Dragons have to get the Celestial powers?" She said, grinning maliciously.

"I like the way you think. Most evil," he replied, his lips gently brushing her hand. For a moment, she thought she saw a shadow move across the ceiling, but she dismissed it as a trick of the light.

He put his arm around her waist and lurched to his feet, dragging her up with him. "What do you think you're doing? You need to rest." She put her free hand on his chest, trying to keep him from overworking himself.

"I'll have time for rest later. For now, you're going to help me get to the library. We have much evil to plan." She wasn't going to fight him about this. It wasn't worth it.

He would fall asleep on her shoulder while reading an old spell book an hour later. He looked like he was still scheming even in dreams. She had tried to move over, and she would never be sure of this, but she thought she heard him mutter, "Stay," his voice asking, not demanding. She bit back an "I told you so," but was happy to comply.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

"So, they've gone and waked the Celestial Dragons," a heavily accented voice said, the voice's owner hopping around a massive in comparison bird's nest. "Ying Ying, I believe I've come across the road to my revenge. That traitorous iguana, two faced hag, lying sorceress, and those nosy monks will never see it coming."

The black and white bird squawked in response. "I know my pet. They will all rue the day they thought to mess with Hannibal Roy Bean."

**So, I'm done with this. It feels good to complete something. Not quite as fluffy as I hoped. However, you all get day old Valentines chocolates for reviewing. They're much cheaper if you buy them today. And they're just as awesome**.


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